MONOGRAPHS ON ARTISTS

MONOGRAPHS ON ARTISTS

EDllED, AND \\ KlirEN JOINI'I.V WITH OTHER AUTHORS

BY

H. KNACKFUSS

V.

DtJRER

BIELEFELD AND LEIPZIG
V E L H A G E N & K L A S I N G

LONDON

H. GREVEL & CO.

13, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, \V. C.
1900

/frt.B

D

DORER

BY

H. KNACKFUSS

TRANSLATED BY

CAMPBELL DODGSON

WITH 134 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PICTURES, WOODCUTS,
ENGRAVINGS AND DRAW^INGS.

BIELEFELD AND LEIPZIG
VELHAGEN & KLASING

LONDON

H. GREVEL & CO.

33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W. C.
1900

Printed by Fischer & Wittic, Leipzig.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

I'if;. r . Christ bearing tlie Cross. Sketcli , British Muscmii ra<;e i

2. Letter A, attributed to Durer. Woodcut ,, i

,, 3. Diirer's own portrait, 14S4. Drawing, Albertina, Vienna ,, 2

„ 4. Virgin and Child. Drawing, 1485. Berlin ,, 3

„ 5. Diirer's Father. Uffizi, Florence ,, 4

,, 6. Amis of Diirer's parents. Uffizi, Florence ,. 5

,, 7. The Wire-mill. Water-colour drawing, Berlin ,, 6

,, 8. Diirers own portrait, 1493. Felix collection, Leipzig „ 7

,, 9. The Virgin with the Monkey. Engraving ,, 8

„ 10. The Prodigal Son. Engraving ,, 9

,, n. Portrait of Frederick the Wise. Berlin ,, 10

,, 12. St. Anthony and St. Sebastian. Dresden ,. 11

,, 13. Katharina Fiirleger. .\ugsburg Gallery ,. 12

„ 14. Drawing known as Diirer's Father. British Museum ,, 13

.,, 15 Diirer's own portrait, 1498. Uffizi, Florence ,, 15

Vf 16. A Woodcut from the .\pocalypse ,, 1/

,, 17. A Woodcut from the Apocalypse ,, 18

A Woodcut from the Apocalypse ,, 19

Portrait of Oswald Krell. Munich „ 21

Portrait of Hans Tucher. Weimar ,, 22

,, 21. Portrait of Felicitas Tuclierin. Weimar ,, 23

,, 22. Diirer's portrait of himself, 1500. Munich ,, 25

,, 23. Hercules and the Stymphalian Birds. Nuremberg ,, 27

,, 24. The Lamentation for Christ. Munich ,, 28

„ 25. The Nativity, ilunich .. 29

,, 26. "Lucas Paumgartner". Munich „ 3°

,, 27. "Stephan Paumgartner". Munich ,, 31

,, 28. The three peasants. Engraving ,, 3-

,, 29. The Standard-bearer. Engraving ,, 33

,, 30. The Crucifixion. Drawing, Basle ,, 34

„ 31. The Arms of Death. Engraving ,, 35

„ I/32. Adam and Eve. Drawing, Albertina, Vienna ,, 36

33. Adam and Eve. Engraving ,, 37

^34. .Adoration of the Magi. Uffizi, Florence ,, 3^

35. St. John the Baptist. Kunsthalle, Bremen ,, 39

,, 36. Descent from the Cross. Drawing, Uffizi, Florence ,, 40

,, 37. The Crucifixion. Drawing, Albertina, Vienna .. 4'

„ 38. The Entombment. Drawing, Albertina, Vienna .. 43

„ 18.

1) j^

VI

LIST OF ILLUSTKATIoNS.

Fig.

39.

40.

4".

42.
43-
44.
45-
46.
47-
48.
49-
50.
SI-
52-
53.
54.
55-
56.
57-
5S.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63-
64.
65.
66.

67.

Si.
82.
83-
84.
85.
86.

87.
88.

89.
90.

91-
92.

The Marriage of the Virgin. Woodcut I'age 46

The Repose in Eg)'pt. Woodcut ,, 47

Christ taking leave Of his Mother. Woodcut 48

The Feast of the Rose-Garlands. Strahovv, Prague ,, 49

The Feast of the Rose-Garlands. Copv, Vienna ,, 50

The Crucifixion. Dresden ., 51

Study of a head. Albertina, Vienna .. 52

Christ among the Doctors. Barbcrini Palace 53

Portrait of a man. Vienna Gallerj- ,, 54

Portrait of a young ni:in. Hampton Court ., 55

Adam. Prado Gallery, Madrid ,, 56

Eve. Prado Gallery, Madrid ,, 57

The Ten Thousand Martyrs. Vienna Gallery 58

Study for the hands of an Apostle. Albertina, Vienna ,, 59

Study for the head of an Apostle. Berlin ,, 60

Study of drapery for an Apostle. Berlin ., 61

Christ on the Mount of Olives. Engraving ., 63

The Kiss of Judas. Engra\-ing > ,, 64

The Virgin and Child. Drawing, Basle Museum ., 65

The Man of Sorrows. Engraving ., 66

Frontispiece to the Life of the Virgin. Woodcut ,. 67

The Death of the Virgin. Woodcut ,, 68

The Assumption of the Virgin. Woodcut ,, 69

Christ appearing to the Magdalen. Woodcut ,, 70

The Man of Sorrows. Woodcut ,, 71

The Betrayal of Christ. Woodcut ,, 72

The Resurrection Woodcut .. 73

The All Saints Altarpiece. Vienna G.illery .. 75

The Holy Trinity. Woodcut ,. 76

The Mass of St. Gregory. Woodcut ,, 77

The Holy Family. Woodcut ., 7S

The Virgin with the cut pear. Vienna Gallery ., 79

Charlemagne. Germanic Museum. Nuremberg ,. Si

St. Jerome with the Willow. Drj-point ., S3

Christ before Caiaphas. Engraving ., 84

Christ descending into Hell. Engraving ,, 85

The Entombment. EngraNnng ,, 86

Two Angels with the Vemicle. EngraNing ,, 87.

The Knight, Death and the Devil. Engra\ing ,, 89

Diirer's Jlother. Dra\ring, Berlin ,. 90

Melancholy. Engraving ., 91

Supposed portrait of Katharina Frey. Drawing, Berlin ., 92

St. Jerome in his Cell „ 93

Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy. Woodcut ,, 94

Troops entering a town. Woodcut ,, 95

Maximilian receiving the submission of a town. Woodcut , 96

The Investiture of the Duke of Milan ., 97

A page of Maximilian's Prayer-book. Drawing ., 99

St. Philip. Uffizi Gallery, Florence 100

St. James. Uffizi Gallery, Florence ,101

Portrait of Wolgemut JIunich .102

Design for a tomb. Drawing, Uffizi Gallery ..103

Lucretia. Pinakothek, Munich . 104

The Cannon. Etching .. 105

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. ^'1

93. The Vir<;in and two angels. Enfjraviny Page 106

94. The Virgin surrounded by angels. Woodcut ,, 107

95. Sketch for the Triumphal Chariot. Albertina ,. 108

g6. Portrait of Maximilian. Drawing, Albertina ., loy

97. Portrait of Maximilian. Woodcut .,110

98. Portrait of Maximilian. Vienna Gallery ,. lii

99. St. Antony. Engraving ,,112

100. Portrait of Felix Hungersperg. Albertina ,,113

lot. Costume drawing. Ambrosiana, Milan ,,114

102. Two women of Zeeland. Drawing, Chantilly ,, I'S

103. Christ bearing the Cross. Drawing, Uffizi Gallery ,, 116

104. The Entombment. Drawing, Uffizi Gallery .,116

105. Diirer's Wife. Drawing, Berlin Cabinet ,,117

106. Study of a ^egress. Uffizi Gallery ,, liS

107. Portrait of Hans Imhof {?). Madrid Gallery ,,119

loS. Study of an old man's head. Albertina, Vienna Pages 120/ 12 1

109. Maximilian on the Triumphal Car. Woodcut Page 121

1 10. Monkeys dancing. Drawing, Basle Museum ,, 122

111. The Great Cardinal. Engraving ,,123

112. Frederick the Wise. Engraving ,,124

113. Wilibald Pirkheimer. Engraving ,,125

114. The Adoration of the Magi. Dr.awing, Albertina ,, 126

115. Jacob Muflel. Berlin, Gallery ,,127

116. Johannes Kleeberger. Pinakothek, Munich ,,129

117. Philip Melanchthon. Engraving ,,130

llS. Hieronymus Holzschuher. Berlin Gallery ,, 13'

119. The Virgin with the Apple. Uffizi, Florence .,133

120. St. John and St. Peter. Pinakothek, Munich ,.134

121. St. Mark and St. Paul. Pinakothek, Munich ,, '35

122. Head of Christ. Chiaroscuro Woodcut >. '37

123. The Coat of arms with the Cock. Engraving >. 139

124. The Pirkheimer border. Woodcut ,, 140

125. Pirkheimer's book-plate. Woodcut ,, 141

126. Hector Pomer's book-plate. Woodcut ,, 142

127. .Study of an angel's head. British Museum ,, 143

128. Portrait of a man. Drawing, Albertina ,,144

129. Portrait of a man. Berlin Cabinet ,,145

130. St. Christopher. Drawing in a private collection ,, 146

131. Martyrdom of St. Catharine. Drawing, British Museum ,, 147

132. The Virgin and Saints. Drawing, the Louvre ,,148

133. Varieties of facial type. Drawing in a private collection ,,149

134. The Crucifixion. Engraving ("der Degenknopf") ,1 '5°

.■?«•

Fig. I. Chrcst kkaki ; thi- rR()<;s. Sketch by Htirer lor a Iriezt.-, in the British Mnseii

ALBRECH T DURER.

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Fig.

Letter from an alphabet attributed
TO DUker.

.~-i carl\' as the fifteenth century the buds
were swelhng and making read}' for that
burst of blossom , which gives the art
of Germany in the sixteenth century a
right to a place of honour in the general
history of art. Painting, in Germany,
found its great masters sooner than the
other arts. The powers of the greatest
of German artists were matured on the
soil of Nuremberg , a free town of the
Empire and busy centre of trade, where
the old traditions of the craft were con-
scientiously kept up in the painters' work-
shops. Albrecht Diirer was born at
Nuremberg on the 2 1"' May 1471. His
father was a goldsmith of Hungarian origin , who had spent a long time
in his youth with the great artists in the Netherlands , had then come
to Nuremberg in 1455 ^^^ obtained a situation in the workshop of the
goldsmith Hieronymus Helper; in 146/ he had married the latter's daughter
Barbara, onh" fifteen years of age, and had become a "master" and citizen
of Nuremberg in the following year. Young Albrecht , at whose baptism
the famous painter and bookseller, Anton Koburger, stood godfather, was
intended for his father's trade. When his schooling was ovi-r, he lea'nt
the art ot the goldsmith from his father. But he fancied painting more
than goldsmith's work; and when he made representations accordingly to
his father, the latter gave way, although he regretted the time which his
son had wasted as a goldsmith's apprentice. We owe this information to
Dtirer's own memoranda.

Knackfuss, Albrecht Diirer. I

AI.BKECHT Di'RKK.

Fig. 3. DUrek's portrait of himself in the year 1484. Silver-point

drawing in the Albertina, Vienna.

The note in Diirer's handwriting in the upper right-hand corner of

the drawing reads as follows: "I did this counterfeit of myself from

a mirror in 1484, when I was still a child. Albrecht Diirer."

(From a photograph by Braim. Clement & Co., Dornach and Paris. 1

Two proofs are pre-
served to us of the asto-
nishingly early develop-
ment of Albrecht Diirer's
talent. The collection of
prints and drawings in the
i)alace of the Archduke
Albert at Vienna, famous
under the name of the
Albertina, possesses a
portrait of the goldsmith's
apprentice drawn by him-
self in silver-point, with
the inscription added later
in his ow^n hand: "I did
this counterfeit of myself
from a mirror in the year
1484, when I was still
a child. Albrecht Dijrer"
(Fig. 3). The other draw-
ing , which is a no less
astonishing performance
than the first, considering
the youth of its author,
and which, at the same
time, makes it clear that
a very respectable in-
struction in drawing was
given in the goldsmiths'
work -shops, is in the
Print-room at the Berlin
Museum ; it is a pen-

drawing of the year 1485 and represents the Mother of God, enthroned, between
two angels. The figures, as was only to be expected, betray an imperfect
knowledge of the human body, and the drapery, with its scheme of out-
line learnt by rote, shows the angular and sharply broken folds which were
peculiar to the late-Gothic art of Southern Germany, and were connected
not only with the preference of the period for light velvet fabrics, but also
with the predominance of wood-carving among the plastic arts. But, at the
same time, there is more than an amiable and childlike simplicity in the struc-
ture of the composition. There is a very good notion of filling spaces and
distributing masses harmoniously, and, before all, our eyes are gladdened
by a heartiness and sincerity of feeling which show a thorough artist. And
the strokes, so delicate and yet already so certain, with which the boy has
done his drawing, foretell the steadiness and vigour of the man's hand (Fig. 4).

ALBRECHT DUREK.

Fig. 4. The Virgin and Child.
Pen-dr.^wing of 1485 in tlie Royal Print-Cabinet , Berlin.

On the jO'*" November i486 Albrecht Diirer was entered as a pupil
of Michael Wolgemut, the time for which he was to "serve" being fixed
at three years. To this 'prentice-period of Diirer's belongs a portrait of
his father which is preserved in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence (Fig. 5).
Even in this early work the young artist can be recognised as a master
of portrait-painting. The serious , intelligent features of the man , whose
piety is indicated by the rosary in his hands, are portrayed with great
vivacity and refinement ; we see that the portrait must have been a speaking
likeness. In the present state of the picture we can only divine the loving
care which the young painter bestowed on the execution of this first portrait,
for it was in very bad preservation and had , in consequence, to undergo
a "restoration"; in this process everything has come to look harder than

I*

Dl:j..._s Iaihek. Painting of 1490 in tlie UlTi^i Gailcry, Fiureiice
(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)

AI,l;kl-,( II r iJlKh.K. r

it did even a few years ago, before it was restored; the face, especially,
now seems older, because the features are coarser, than was formerly the
case. It is here that the well-known monogram of Albrccht Di'irer, which
he retained throughout his life, appears for the first time on a picture.
On the back of the panel Diirer has painted a coat of arms. Still more
seriously damaged by the misusage of years than the front, this first sjjecimen
of Diirer's taste in heraldry in its present repainted condition shows hardly
a touch that is by his hand. But it remains interesting as regards its
contents. The arms are those of a married couple. Accordingly, of the
two shields united under one helmet, the sinister, with a ram, must be that
of Diirer's maternal ancestors; the dexter shield, that of the Diirer famih-,
is a "canting" coat, as it is called — one, that is, derived from the name —
and displays an open door (Diirer, Thiire, door) (Fig. 6).

When Albrecht had served his time as a pupil, his father sent him off
on his travels. He set out after Easter in 1490, and found his waj- about
the world for four years. He was kindly received at Colmar and Basle
by the brothers of Martin Schongauer, then lately deceased. Thence he
appears to have wandered across the Alps and to have gone as far as

Fig, 6. The Arms of Durer'.s P.\rents.

Painted on the b.-ick of the picture reproduced in Fig. 5,

(From a photograph by Giacoino Brogi, Florence.)

6 ALBRECHT DORER.

Venice. On the way, he took many landscape-sketches, which were some-
times most carefully finished in water-colours. Diirer was probably the first
jjainter who grasped the importance of landscape as an independent thing,
and the poetry which landscape can suggest. "Tk^^v^T^e, too, to~7^-
produce the forms and colours of nature with absolute fidelity. Many of
his earlier and later studies of foreign lands and of his own home are
landscapes in the most modern and realistic sense possible (Fig. 7).

In addition to studies and sketches of various kinds , dating from the
time of his travels, we have a careful portrait of Diirer by himself in oils
painted in 1493 (in the Felix Collection at Leipzig). Goethe has "iven

Fig. 7. The Wike-jiiii.. Sketch from nature iii «alcr-colours. In

the Royal Print-Cabinet, Berlin.

a description of it in the following words: "An inestimable treasure is
Albrecht Diirer's portrait by himself, dated 1493, and painted accordingly
in his twenty-second year, half life-size, half-length, showing both hands,
but not the whole of the elbows, a crimson cap with a short tuft of
little strings, the throat bare to below the collar-bone, an embroidered
hem to the shirt, the folds of the sleeves tied with peach-coloured ribands,
a greyish-blue mantle with a border of yellow braid, to show that he
was a young man of fashion who liked gay dress, a blue -flowered
eryngium ('Mannestreue' is its German name) held significantly in his hand,
the face of a serious young man , with the beard sprouting round mouth
and chin, the whole splendidly drawn, rich yet unaffected, harmonious in
all its parts, finished in the highest degree, completely worthy of Diirer,

Al.r.KKCIlT DTRKR.

Fig. 8. Dcrer's portrait of himself in 1493. Oil-painting in the Felix Collection , Leipzig.

though painted with very thin pigments." The inscription in ornamental
letters in the background reads; " Mein Sach die geht, wie es oben steht."
(Fig. 8.)

When Diirer came home after Whitsuntide in 1494. his father had
already arranged a match for him. The bride was Agnes Frey, the daughter
of a man of respectable family, "artistic and experienced in all things".
The marriage soon took place, on the 14''' July in the same year.

One would have thought that Di'irer would have made haste to paint
a portrait of his young wife, who passed for a good-looking woman. There
is, however, no record extant of the first period of their married life except
quite a slight pen-drawing (in the Albertina), which is more of a joke than
a portrait, showing the young wife, half-length, leaning her arm on the
table and her chin on a hand, just about to take a nap. Diirer has written
on it: "My Agnes." Dame Agnes appears here with her apron on and

Fig. 0. The Virgin with the Monkey. One of Diirer's earliest engravings.

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Fig. lo. The PKui.iGAi. Sun. One ot" Diirer'b earliest engravings

10

ALBRECHT DURER.

her hair uncovered and not particularly tidy. We are enabled, most likely,
to form an idea of her appearance in her best clothes from three little
costume-drawings (also in the Albertina), done with the pen and then tinted
with water-colours, which Diirer made in the year 1500, and on which he
set the inscriptions: "This is the dress worn in the house at Nuremberg .

Fig. 11. PoRTR.^IT SUPPOSED TO BE THAT OF FrEDEHICIC THE WlSE, ElECTOK ut SaXONV.

Painted in tempera. In the Royal Museum, Berlin.
(From a photograph by Braun. Clement & Co., Dornach and Paris.)

"This is the dress worn for going to church at Nuremberg", and "This is
thej' dress worn by the women of Nuremberg for dancing". An actual
portrait of "Albrecht Diirerin" was drawn by Di'irer in silver-point in 1504.
It is now in a private collection at Brunswick , but is , unfortunateh', ver\'
much effaced. The face under the large coif is not endowed with remark-
able charms, but looks open and sensible.

Di.irer's marriage was a childless one. Notwithstanding , he had soon
to provide for the maintenance of a biggish family. In 1 502 Diirer's

Fig. :2. St. Antony and St. Sebastian. Wings of the aliarpiece in the Dresden Gallery.
(From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach and Paris.)

12 ALBRECHT DCRER.

father passed away; he had "spent his Hfe in j^reat toil and hard, grievous
work". In Diirer's short memoir he has honoured in simple, heartfelt
words the memory of the man who had brought him up from earliest
childhood to piety and righteous conduct. Kow, after his father's death,
the young artist had to provide not only for his dearly loved mother, whom

Fig. 13. Kath.\rina Furlegeb. Portrait, painted probably as a study
for a madonna, 1497. In the Augsburg Gallery.

lie took to his own home, but also for a troop of younger brothers and
sisters. To all appearance, his circumstances were for some time by no
means brilliant ; but by indefatigable industry and restless energy he attained
by degrees to a very fair amount of prosperity.

Soon after his marriage Diirer opened an independent studio. For this
no "masterpiece", in the literal sense of the term, or any other formalit\-
was required. For at Nuremberg, in contrast to the other towns of Germany,

AI.l;l<i:('HT DUKKR.

13

painting was reckoned a
"free" art, and was not sub-
ject to the regulations of
any guild. That was ad-
vantageous to the position
of a painter who was a
true artist ; Albrecht Dii-
rer has never been re-
garded as a mere journe\-
man-painter. The first large
commissions, indeed, which
fell to the share of the young
artist , for altarpieces and
memorial pictures, had to be
produced in the customary-
way with the assistance of
apprentices. Yet even in
these works the creative
energ)- of the master and
his sure command ot form
were clearly revealed , and
he impressed on many of the
pictures the unmistakeable
traces of his own artist's hand.
In Diirer's character as
an artist two main' features

Charcoal drawing in the British Museum.

are especially prominent ; he has a scientific and an imaginative side.

Diirer declared the yearning after knowledge to be the only one among
the appetites and energies ot the soul of man which could never be
appeased and satiated. Thus his attitude even to his own art was that
of a scientific inquirer. He wanted to increase his powers of perception,
"In order to perfect himself ever more and more. The search after the
nature of beauty led him, it is true, to the acknowledgment, in the language
of a true artist: "Beauty! what it is, I know not." But from youth to old age
he never desisted from examining with r.ule and compass the form of man,
and that of the creature which comes next to man in beauty, the horse ;
not that he supposed that beauty was to be attained by measure and
number, but because he w'as determined to fathom the laws on which the
harmony of the visible shape must needs rest. By way of compensation
for this meditative and critical bent in his intelligence, he was endowed
with a soaring and ardent fancy. Whilst one side of his mind sought for
what was in accordance with law, the other loved the unusual and strange ;
it urged him to clothe in visible shape the phantoms of his dreams. The
passion for knowledge and the force of imagination alike led him to see
in nature the best of all teachers of art. This was the great stepwbich

14 ALBRECHT DURER.

parted Durer's art from that of his predecessors. Diirer clung affectionately
to nature. He got a.s close to, reality as it is conceivable that anyone
could do. But with all his extreme fidelity to nature he did not make
the least surrender of his aims as an artist. His own words are the best
to characterize the loftiness of his view of art: "Most true is it that art
lies hid in nature; he who can pluck it out thence hath made it his."
No one must think, Diirer continues, following out the thought, that he can
make anything better than God has created it. A man will never be able
to make a beautiful picture out of his own head ; but when one has well
stored his mind by much cop)ing of nature, then art will sow its seed
and grow up and bring forth fruit after its kind: "hence the treasure of
the heart, gathered in secresy, is made manifest by the work, and the new
creature which a man makes in his own heart takes the form of a thing." —
Even in the works of his youth Diirer has shown how rich a treasure he
had gathered in his heart.

The earliest altarpiece from Durer's studio which has been preserved
is in the Dresden Gallery. It consists of three pictures painted in tempera
on canvas, and represents the Mother of God in the centre, with S.S. An-
ton\- and Sebastian on the wings. The work of Diirer's own hand is every-
where perceptible, and his inventive spirit visibly controls every detail, how-
ever small. The three pictures are quite novel in treatment, and independent
of any earlier manner of dealing with the subject before us. In the central
picture we see the Virgin Mary, less than half-length, behind a parapet on
which the Infant Jesus lies sleeping on a pillow. She has been reading a
book of devotions, which lies with its pages open on a little desk at one
end of the parapet, and now turns towards the child, to whom she ad-
dresses , with folded hands , the continuation of her prayer. Over her are
poised two little angels swinging censers , the smoke of which rising up-
wards denotes , according to the ancient symbolism of the Church , prayer
which is well-pleasing to God. Two other little angels hold a splendid
crown over the Virgin's head. Other angel children again have descended
to the floor of the chamber which forms the background and are making
themselves useful by doing little bits of house-work, both here and in Joseph's
workshop , which is visible through an opening. One of the little things
blows the flies away with a fan from the face of the sleeping Jesus. All
this is most charming in idea, and the execution is careful in the extreme,
from the pictures which are recognisable in the ornamentation of the prayer-
book in the foreground to the tiny figures which we perceive quite in the
distance on the street, which is visible through the window of the room.
The central picture is, however, less artistically important than the narrow
paintings in the wings, which show the two saints also as half-lengths be-
hind parapets, with little angels hovering round their heads (Fig. 12). The
hermit saint, Antony, is a peaceable old man ; he keeps his shrunken, bony
hands laid on the book which supplies the subject of his contemplation,
and is no longer vexed by the hideous fiendish faces which flutter round

Fig. 15. DUrer's portrait of himself in 1498. In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)

l6 ALBRFXHT DURER.

his head, and which the httle angels endeavour to put to flight. The idea
of youthfulness is no less perfectly rendered in the case of St. Sebastian
than that of venerable old age in the hermit ; it is expressed by the soft
modelling of the head, the curly locks of the hair, and the powerful sinews
of the bare body, and , in another way, by the animated expression with
which he prays, and even by the very way in which he folds his hands. Of
the little angels which fly gaily about, some are engaged in laying a purple
covering on the bare shoulders of the witness to the Faith ; two others,
one of whom carries under his arm a bundle of arrows in token of the
martyrdom which he suffered, hold a golden circlet, the crown of sanctity,
in readiness for him. In the picture of St. Antony, also, one of the angels
brings a similar slight crown to the saint. These circlets and the royal
crown which corresponds to them in the central picture were substituted
by Diirer for the traditional form of the nimbus, which, perhaps, he thought
it difficult to reconcile with the honest truth to nature with which he
carried out the figures. The effort after the most complete fidelity to nature,
inwardly in the character and expression of the persons, outwardly in their
form, is already very clearly expressed in these pictures. Undraped bodily
forms so finely wrought and so true to nature as the upper portion of the
figure of this St. Sebastian had never been painted before in Germany. —
The Dresden altarpiece comes from the Castle church at Wittenberg. There
can be hardly any doubt that it was carried out by the orders of the
Elector Frederick of Saxony, who stayed at Nuremberg repeatedly between
1494 and 1 501, and employed Diirer in various ways. Several altarpieces
and single pictures, carried out about this time or a little later under Diirer 's
direction and from his designs, plainly betray the handiwork of pupils.
Others , again , declare with full energy the master's gifted individuality,
and his forcible realism, W'hich triumphed over every revolution in the taste
of different periods. This is particularly true of an altarpiece in the Old
Pinakothek at Munich, consisting, once more, of a central picture with two
wings, which is usually described as the Paumgartner altarpiece because it
was painted by order of some members of the Nuremberg family of Paum-
gartner (Fig. 25 — 27). The central panel ot this work represents the
Nativity. We behold the interior of a picturesque ruin, the columns and
arches of which belong to the Romanesque style ; this is very characteristic
of the Renaissance, which sought out and imitated the old , whereas me-
diaeval art , in representing architecture, always followed with the greatest
accuracy the style of building which prevailed at the time ; Diirer had not
yet become acquainted with monuments of ancient architecture, and so the
tendency of the time expressed itself in him by his representing, in place
of the antique, the most antiquated style which was within his reach, namely
the Romanesque. The ruin serves as a stable. A roof of board is ^;'ilt out
in front of the side-room which shelters the ox and ass , and under this
lean-to lies the new-born babe , surrounded by angels who express their
childish joy. Mary kneels and contemplates her child with glad emotion.

Fig, 16. A woodcut from the "Apocalypse", 1498.
St. John in the presence of the Almighty (Rev. I. 13—17).

Knackfuss, Albrecht Diirer.

Fig. 17. A woodcut from the -Apocalypse", 1498. The four horsemen i^Kev. VI. 2 — 8r.

Fij^. tS. A woodcut from the "Apocalypse ", 1498.
The Blowing of the sixth Trumpet (Rev. IX. 13 — ig).

20 ALBRECHT DURER.

Joseph, also deeply moved, kneels down on the other side of the child,
outside the shelter of the roof Some shepherds , to whom the angel,
who is still seen hovering in the air, has announced the tidings, are already
entering from without the walls (Fig. 25). The finest parts, however, of the
Paumgartner altarpiece are the two wings. In each of these we behold
the splendid , lifelike form of a warrior in armour, w ho stands beside his
horse in a wild landscape (Fig. 26, 27). Presumably these men with their
sharply characterised, portrait-like faces introduce us to the donors of the
altarpiece. The one who stands to the right of the central picture is
generally described as Lucas Paumgartner, the other as his brother Stephen.
It was, certainly, not an uncommon thing for the donors of an altarpiece
to have their portraits introduced into it , and the Paumgartners may have
had some special motive for having themselves represented in warlike gear.
But it is as contrary to the church's custom and to natural feeling for
earthly personages to be represented, in portraits of donors as such, other-
wise than in the attitude of reverence and adoration prescribed by their
situation, so near to the Divine Being. For this reason it must be assumed
that the two men in armour, even if they bear the features of the Paum-
gartners , represent at the same time two knightly saints , perhaps George
and Eustace. The absence of the halo is no argument against this as-
sumption, for Diirer always omitted this traditional token of sanctity in his
finished pictures. Even the slight aureole of golden rays, which the school
of Van Eyck introduced in place of the mediaeval nimbus, w-as incompatible
with the forcible and realistic way in which Di'irer painted his figures and
their surroundings.

There are two altarpieces, each on a single panel, carried out for the
most part by the hands of pupils, though, as compositions, they are notable
works of the master, which represent the Lamentation over the Body of
Christ. One is dated 1500, while the other was obviously painted about
the same time. The first of these two pictures, in the Pinakothek at IMunich,
takes us to the foot of the cross. The sacred Body, resting on a winding-
sheet, has just been laid on the ground; Joseph cf Arimathea holds the
head and the upper portion of the body in a raised position , while Nico-
demus, with a large jar of spices under his arm, has laid hold of the lower
end of the shroud. Beside Xicodemus stands one of the Maries, deeply
enveloped in a dark mantle, with a second jar of ointment. The other
women have placed themselves on the ground beside the Dead ; between
two matrons who utter their lamentations the Virgin Mother wrings her
hands in silent grief; Mary Magdalene holds caressingly the limp right hand
of the Saviour. The disciple John has withdrawn reverentially behind the
women ; his hands are folded , and he looks aside , into empty space. In
the distance we behold in a] bright evening-light the town and citadel of
Jerusalem with a rocky chain of mountains rising over them. The picture
as a whole arrests the spectator's attention at first sight by the marvellous
freedom and naturalness of the composition, carefully balanced as it is, and

Fig. 19. Portrait of Oswald Krell. Oil-painting of 1499, 'i the Pinakothek, Munich.
(From a photograph by Franz HanfsiangI, Munich.)

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Fig. 2o. H-A^ss TuCHER. Oil-painting of 1499, '" ^^^ Grand-ducal Museum, Weimar.
(From the first annual issue of the Society for Publishing Photographs to Dlustrate the History of Art.)

Fig. 21. Felicitas TucHERiN, wife of Hans Tucher. Oil-painting of i499i '" the Grand-ducal Museum, Weimar.
(From the first annual issue of the Society for Publishing Photographs to Illustrate the History of Art.)

2 . ALHRECHT DURER.

the longer we look searchingly at it, the more striking is the utterance
of heart-felt grief which it conveys (Fig. 241. The other picture comes
very near it in feeling. It was painted by order of the Holzschuher
family, and is now in the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg. The scene of
the action is laid here before the opening of the tomb in the rock; it is
the moment of a brief, final halt on the way from Golgatha, which is seen
in the distance, to the sepulchre. The family of the donors is represented
in the lower margin of the picture, as a row of diminutive figures kneeling
in prayer, according to a very frequent custom in early art, which we
meet with nowhere else among Di'irer's works.

Diirer limits _the functions of painting as follows, according to the ideas
of his time : " The art of painting is employed in the service of the church . . .
It preserves also the shape of men after they have passed away." Paintings
ought, therefore, to be either sacred pictures or portraits. Yet he ventured
for once, in 1 500, on a field hitherto almost entirely unknown to northern
art, that of mythology, when he painted Hercules killing the Stymphahan
birds (in the Germanic Museum, Nuremberg). This picture, painted with
thin colours on canvas, is very remarkable as an evidence of the thorough
conscientiousness with which Diirer was endeavouring to make himself
acquainted with the human body. As regards this department of knowledge
Diirer stands very far above any of his predecessors in Germany. The
treatment of the Body of Christ in the two pictures mentioned above is
enough, of itself, to prove this. Here, however, he has studied the problem
of observing and reproducing the play of the muscles in violent motion.
The fine landscai)e with the large outlines of mountain and sea is also
remarkable; Diirer may have seen such forms as these on his travels on
the Southern slopes of the Alps (Fig. 23). Far more important, however,
than this picture, which has also suffered very much from misusage, are
the portraits which Diirer painted at that period, in addition to his altar-
pieces. A portrait painted in tempera of a man in rich costume, which
has become the property of the Berlin Museum, is regarded with great
probability as the portrait of the Elector Frederick ("the Wise") of Saxony.
If this supposition is correct, the portrait may perhaps have been produced
at the same time as the Dresden altarpiece and this princely patron may
very probably have been the first who gave Diirer an order for a portrait
(Fig. II). The picture of a maiden praying, with splendid golden hair
hanging loose, and a very thin transparent veil lying over it on the brow
and^on the crown of the head, in the Picture-gallery at Augsburg, passes
for the portrait of a daughter of the Fiirleger family of Nuremberg. This
charming portrait of a girl, which looks like a study from nature for a
Madonna, show us that Diirer's sharp eye for the characteristic was not
blind to the charm of feminine grace and virginal delicacy (Fig. 13). A
portrait of Diirer's father which dates from the same year as the lady of
the Fiirleger family, viz. i497, belongs to the Duke of Northumberland;
the fine charcoal drawing which is preserved in the British Museum, is

Fig. 22. Durek's portkait of himself in 1500- Oil-painting in the rinakothek, Munich-

The inscription reads: Albertus Durerus Noricus ipsum me propriis hie effingebam coloribus aetatis anno XXVUIl

1 1, Albert Diirer of Nuremberg, painted my own portrait here in the proper colours at the age of twenty-eight).

(From a photograph by Franz HanfstangI, Munich.)

26 ALHKECHT DURER.

perhaps to be regarded as the preliminary drawing for this portrait (Fig. 14,).')
For lack of orders for portraits, Diirer again sat to himself as a model,
after painting his father. His brown locks now hung down luxuriantly upon
his shoulders, and his features expressed a seriousness beyond his years.
That is how he appears in the picture now in the Prado gallery at Madrid,
in a black and white costume of the most fashionable cut, with an expression
about the mouth and eyes which may almost be called dejected. The
portrait is dated 1498 and bears the inscription:

" Das malt ich nach meiner gestalt
Ich war sex und zwanzig Jar alt. -)

Albrecht Diirer",

and under these lines it is signed with the monogram as well. A repetition
of the same portrait, in which the expression of the head is somewhat
weakened and the features are made more tranquil and cheerful, is in the
collection of portraits of painters in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence (Fig. I 5).
The following year brought him commissions from the citizens of Nurem-
berg. Three portraits of the Tucher family bear the date 1499. They are
busts, half the size of life. Two of them, Hans Tucher and his wife
Felicitas (Fig. 20 and 21), are in the Weimar Museum; the third. Dame
Elsbeth Tucherin, wife of Niklas Tucher (whose portrait too, no doubt,
existed once upon a time), is in the Cassel Gallery. All three pictures are
carried out quite uniformly. The faces are drawn with a hard precision,
and give, no doubt, a perfect likeness of the sitters. The backgrounds consist
partly of damask curtains , partly of views of the open country, in which
bushes and clouds are indicated in a curiously boyish w^ay.

One would almost think that Durer had felt a certain embarrassment
at being required to paint persons of such a distinguished family; the
painting is smooth and neat, but without any lively charm of colour.
A far better picture is the splendid and lifeHke portrait of Oswald Krell,
of the same year, in the Pinakothek at Munich. Black velvet, brown fur,
a wall covered with red material and the blue and green of a delightful |
landscape in the distance compose a striking scheme of colour round the
head of the young man with its wavy light-brown locks (Fig. 19). Then
in 1500 Diirer painted the best-known and most beautiful of his portraits
of himself, which is now in the Pinakothek at Munich (in a condition, un-
fortunately, by no means free from damage); he looks us straight in the
face, with his noble countenance surrounded by an abundance of lock-,
grown still more luxuriant and beautifully kept; his expression is tranquil
and there is a clear, observant look in his shining open eyes (Fig. 22).

>) The drawing in question, though it bears the traditional name of " Diirer's father",
no resemblance to the authenticated portraits of the goldsmith. It is much later in date t
1497, and is now regarded by the best authorities as a characteristic work of the Aug^)
painter, Hans Burgkmair. ^' ^■

-) I painted this from my \-isage;
I was six and twenty years of age.

ALBRECHT DURER. 2/

It was not his portraits, however, nor his rcHgious pictures, but a series
of woodcuts, which made Albrecht Dijrer famous far and wide at quite an
early ago. The pictures were fastened in their places over the altar of a
church or in the dwelling of a patron. It was only a more or less limited
number of people that ever saw them. But woodcuts, which, thanks to the
economical way in which they were printed off, could be offered at ex-
tremely low prices, went out into the wide world as "broadsides". By this
means at that period, even more than by printed literature, food for the

Fig. 23. Hercules in combat wtth the Stvmph.\ll\n Birds.
Painting in tempera of 1500, in the Germanic Museum, Nuremberg.

mind was brought within the reach ot thousands and thousands , and con-
sumed with avidity. In 1498 Diirer published the Revelations of St. John
the Divine with Latin and with German text and fifteen woodcuts of large
dimensions (iS'/j by 1 1*/^ inches). In the choice of this subject he fell in
with the mood of the age. The excited spirits of that period, a period
disquieted within itself, still striving, without a definite aim, for something
new, had a peculiar love for the study of the mysterious prophecies of the
Apocalypse, so diversely interpreted.

But to him, the artist fired with the creative impulse, this book offered
the richest field for his inexhaustible imagination. As a draughtsman he

Fig. 24. The Lamentation beneath the Cross. Oil-painting of i5oo» '" the Pinakothek, Munich.
(From a photograph by Franz Hanfstangl, Munich.) •

Fig. 35. The Nativity. Central portion of the Pauingartncr altarpitjce in the i'inukoihek, Munich.
(From a photograph by Franz Hanfstangl, Munich.) / S <> ^

30

ALBRECHT DURER.

could follow the author in
his fantastic visions with a
flight of fancy no less bold
than his. Thus he put into
visible shape the obscure
prophetic utterances ot
the Evangelist in such a
masterly and pregnant style
as the world had never
seen or dreamed of until
then. His work w-as some-
thing perfectly new, a "re-
velation" of art. Even at
the present day these de-
signs with their tremen-
dous energy and spiritual
significance can never fail
to be impressive. He must
be a Philistine indeed,
who is content with trivial
fault-finding, with calling
the drawing inaccurate or
harsh , in these master-
pieces of superb invention,
instead of letting himself
be carried away by the
downright power of the
grand compositions. There
is certainly no lack of
harshness or of violation
of the external rules of
correct draughtmanship,
and superficial beauty of
form was never the aim of
Diner's effort in art. Diirer used the pictorial language which he had learnt,
the language of his time , in order to express what he had to say. This
pictorial language at first strikes the man of the present day as very quaint,
accustomed as he is to a different mode of expression in art , just as the
written language of that time is quaint. It seems odd in a still higher degree
in his designs for woodcuts because Diirer wished here to be plainly intelligible
to the multitude , and because he was bound to aim at the most forcible
and harsh insistance on details to prevent their character from disappearing
beneath the knife of the wood-engraver; whereas in his paintings his study
of the actual look of nature gives to his artistic language a turn which brings
it nearer to the mode of expression ol the present day, which has returned

Fig. 26. One of the wings of the Paumgartner Altarpiece
(supposed to be a portrait of Lucas Paumgartner)

in the Pinakothek, Munich.
(From a photograph by Franz Hanfstangl, Munich.)

ALBRECHT DURER.

31

imcc more to nature. But
anyone , who takes the

trouble, can learn Diirer's
language tor himself. For
Germans especially it is
not so hard as it may
seem, perhaps, at first to
some ; for every stroke
which Diirer drew is Ger-
man. Whoever seriously
studies the pages of the
Apocalypse, which are not
very common, indeed, in
original impressions , but
are accessible everywhere
in various reproductions
which render them with
perfect accuracy by means
of the technical resources
of the present day, will dis-
cover new artistic beauties
and derive fresh enjoyment
from them every time he
L;azes at them. We see
everywhere in them the
deepest thoughts expres-
sed with striking power,
whether the composition
consist of a few figures
only or of a countless
lumiber which cover the
surface of the design;
whether the exultation of
the blessed or some mo-
ment of sheer horror form the subject ot the page. — The first of the series
(if cuts serves as an introduction and relates to the person of the writer
'<( the Revelations; it depicts St. John the Evangelist being tortured with
lioiling oil, as a legend relates, under the Emperor Domitian , without
taking harm. Then the series of the apocalyptic designs begins with the
appearance of God to the Evangelist (Fig. 16). How- magnificently the
remoteness from all contact with earth is suggested here by a layer of
clouds which suggests the idea of limitless space! In the midst of the
sea of clouds the Lord is enthroned , surrounded by seven golden candle-
sticks, and St. John has fallen down at His feet at His appearance, and is
listening to His words with folded hands. The vision of God is represented

Fig. 27. One of the wings of the Paumgartner Altarpiece
(supposed to be a portrait of Stephan Paumgartner),

in the Pinakothek, Munich.
(From a photograph by Franz Hanfstangl , Munich.)

32

ALBRECHT DURER.

in the strictest agreement
with the words of the text .
His head is surrounded b\
sunbeams ; flames of fire
dart forth from His eyes ;
a sword proceeds out ol
His mouth. The effect ol
the whole is so powerful
that anything quaint dis-
appears in the magnificenc*-
of the impression which it
makes. The force of Durer's
art has surmounted even
apparent impossibilities in
the way of symbolical re-
presentation ; how majestic
is the gaze of the eye?,
among the flames which
dart out from them , and
what a sublime grandeur
there is in the stretched-out
right hand, on which seven
glittering stars are set ! — In
the following illustration we
see the gate of heaven thrown open, above the earth, which is suggested b\
a rich and varied landscape. In the ring of clouds, from which lightning flames
break out, with heads between them blowing forth a sound as of thunder, sit the
four-and-twenty elders with crowns and harps. Within the circle which the\
form appears at the top the Lord on the throne encircled by the rainbow,
surrounded by the seven lamps and the four living beings. An angel flic^
down before his feet to ask who is worthy to open the book with seven
seals which lies in God's lap ; and St. John, who kneels in the lowest place
on the ring of clouds, receives from the elder nearest to him the answer to
this question : the Lamb of God is even now rising on the step of the throne,
to open the book. — ^The next cut , which has always been admired most
of the W'hole series, is the picture of the vision beheld by the seer on the
opening of the four first seals (Fig. 17). In masses of cloud, driven by a
hurricane , with flashes of fire darting across them , the riders pursue their
way, dealing destruction as they go. The crowned rider with the bow, the
one with the sword and the one with the balances seem like triumphant
warriors , mounted on fierce and powerful steeds under whose hoofs men
fall in heaps. The fourth of the company is Death, an uncanny, spectral
form, who gallops after them on a lean jade. "And hell followed with
him " : this is signified by the open jaws of hell, which are just swallowing
one of the mighty ones of the earth. The horror oLJnevitaWe - 4©om is

Fig. 26. The three peas.^nts. Engraving.

AI.IiKKCIlT DURER.

33

expressed in this composition with a force to which there is hardly a parallel
to be found in the art of any period. There follows the opening of the
fifth and sixth seal. At an altar up in the cloudy heights those who have
borne witness by their blood are being clothed by an angel with white
raiment. Beneath, we see the sun and moon, with faces, in mediaeval style;
this mode of representing them is not, as a rule, in Diirer's manner, but
here it has its significance ; the heavenly lights look down on the earth
with horror and dread. The fringe of heaven which descends to earth is
rolled together, so that the edges of the clouds are parted to either side
like a curtain, hi the space between them the stars fall down flaming on
mankind. Men and women shriek in despair; crowned heads and ecclesiastics
of every rank, from Pope to monk, are huddled together in helpless masses.
Every earthly power and force is at an end. The clefts of the earth offer
no protection ; we see how the rocks themselves are tottering. — The next
illustration is , once more, a composition ot extraordinary grandeur. At
the top flies an angel, who
bears a cross, " the sign of
the living God", and gives
a command to the four
angels who have power
over the winds. These four
angels, men with strong,
bony frames , armed with
mighty swords, receive the
order; they check the winds,
which move tumultuously
among the clouds, in the
shape of heads of wild
features, blowing with their
mouths. A group of slender
trees, laden with fruit, rises
motionless into the tem-
pestuous air. There is a
look of peace and sunshine
over the landscape on one
side, where a kindly angel
steps forward and makes
the sign of the cross with
a reed-pen on the foreheads
of the elect, who kneel
on the ground in compact
array. Thereupon follows
the opening of the seventh
seal. The seven angels
have received their seven

Knackfuss, Albrecht Diirer.

Landsknkcht with the standard of the Emperor
Maximilian. Engraving.

30. The Crucifixion. Drawing heightened with white on a dark ground, 1502. Basle Museum.
(From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach and Paris.)

ALBRECHT DURER.

35

Fig. 31. The Arms of Death. Engraving of 1503.

trumpets from God , and the terrors which accompany the blowing of the
first four trumjiets are let loose upon the earth. It is astonishing how here
again the draughtsman has managed to convey to our eyes the devastations
described in the text b>" a perfectly ingenuous but absolutely clear style
of expression. — Then follows the representation of the sounding of the sixth
trumpet and its effect. The call sounds from the four corners of the golden
altar which stands before the face of God , and the four angels of the
Euphrates , hard , fierce-looking figures , ruthlessly discharge their office of
slaying the third part of mankind; the mighty and the humble, the armed
warrior and the young wife, fall before the tremendous stroke of their
swords. The host of horsemen rushes forward over them in the clouds,
once more in literal illustration of the text, destroying mankind with fire,
smoke and brimstone (Fig. i8). — Then comes a woodcut which surpasses
all in sheer audacity of treatment. The angel, clothed with clouds, whose

36

ALBRECHT DURER.

face, crowned with a rainbow, is like the sun, and whose feet are ])illars
of fire, stands with one foot on the sea, the other on the earth, and whilst
he raises his right hand in adjuration above the clouds, offers the open
book with his left hand to St. John, who swallows the book at the bidding
of a celestial messenger. Odd as this subject may appear, the extraordinary,
giant form of the angel is so solemn, as conceived by Diirer, that a magni-
ficent impression is produced even here. — The next page shows Heaven in
the act of rejoicing , for the son of the woman , clothed with the sun and
crowned with stars , who stands upon the moon , is being carried by little
angels up to God. The stars, sprinkled over the sky like flowers on a
meadow, glitter and beam with festal radiance. Over against the woman,
to whom eagle's wings are given that she may escape, the seven-headed
dragon creeps out from the depths of the earth, striking the stars with its
tail and spitting out a torrent of water at the woman. Even in the form
of this dragon Diirer's remarkable creative power is displayed ; the frightful
monster assumes, one might almost say, a living and credible shape. —
Next to this comes the subject of Michael and his angels flinging down

Fig. 32. Adam .\nd E\e. Indian ink drawing, .\lbertina, Vienna.

1 .^. j3. AuAM ANU Eve. Engraving, 1504.

38

ALBRECHT DL'RER.

Satan and his crew — beings of awful and fantastic shape — with irrestistible
force to the earth , which Hes with its fields all unaware of the conflict,
bathed in sunshine. Then the seven-headed beast appears on the earth,
adored of men, and its comrade, the beast with the lamb's horns, which is
thrown down by fire from heaven. Over them, in a shining light between
the clouds, surrounded b\- angels, the Lord appears with a .sickle. — In

i'ig. 34. The Ad(.)K\tI(jn or ihe Magi. Oii-painling of 1504, in the Lllizi (iaiiery, Florence.
(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)

constrast to the homage offered to the evil one, the following cut shows
the endless multitude of the elect singing praises to the Lamb which appears
in radiant splendour between the four living creatures. — After this we see
Babylon the Great, sitting as a bedizened woman on the seven-headed beast ]
and holding out to princes and peoples the cup of fornication, and we see,
at the same time, the visitation of her sin with punishment; besides the
mighty angel who makes ready to hurl the mill-stone into the sea, troops
of heavenly warriors pour out of the clouds, and in the distance the smoke
and flame of the city of Bab\lon go up to heaven. — The concluding illustration

ALHRECIIT DURER.

39

shows the angel forcing the Devil to
descend in chains into the pit, of which
he holds the key. These two large
figures occupy the foreground of the
splendid design. Further back, St. John
stands on the summit of a mountain,
crowned with woods, and an angel points
out to him the New Jerusalem , which
lies, an opulent and spacious cit\-, on the
slope of a well- wooded mountain.

It is not onh' the imprecedented and
unsurpassed grandeur and boldness of
invention that give their great importance
to Diirer's designs for the Apocalypse.
To the artistic value of these woodcuts
must be added the special ])lace which
they occupy in the history of art. They
signify the most important turning-point
in the development of wood-engraving.
Hitherto woodcuts had had to be coloured
before the\" could pass for finished
pictures. Diirer made his drawings which
were intended for cutting in such a way
that there was no need of any such ad-
dition ; he was the first to introduce
contrast of light and shade into drawings
on w'ood by using close cross-hatching,
and b\" this method of drawing with a
certain degree of "colour" he produced
the effect of a finished picture in a way
which rendered an\' reinforcement with
actual colouring quite superfluous. This
certainly increased to a large extent the
difficulties of the work of the wood-
engraver, who had to follow his lines
with the knife in such a way as to leave
them as raised ridges standing out above

the lowered spaces of the block. But Diirer helped the wood-engravers
to overcome the obstacles of the task which he set them , by choosing a
very large size of cuts and by making his lines very definite and full of
meaning. There can be no doubt that he gave close personal attention
to the process of cutting. On the whole it must be said that the illustrations
to the Apocalypse are really well cut, considering that the wood-engravers
had never before had an opportunity of proving their dexterity on work
of such high artistic pretensions ; in the finer parts , indeed , especially

I^'g. 35- St. John the B.m-tist-

Wing of an unfinished altarpiece, 1504.

In the Kunsthalle, Bremen.

40

ALBRECHT DURER.

Fig. 36. The Descent from the CuoS6. I'tin-drauing. sketch for the drawing
of the same subject in the "Green Passion". Uffizi Collection. Florence.

the faces and hands, the engraver's knife has often done violence to
the master's Hne.

Dijrer paid the same attention to engraving on copper as he did to
wood-cutting. We do not know when he began to occupy himself with
this artistic process. Perhaps while he was still with his father something
may have suggested his taking it up, for it was in the goldsmith's shop
that the art of engraving had its birth. The tradition that he was instructed
in this branch of art by Wolgemut is far from probable, for there is no
evidence that Wolgemut worked as an engraver at all. Among Diirer's
earliest engravings , carried out with a certain timidity of hand , there are
some which agree more or less exactly with engravings by a more practised
hand which are signed with a W. The W has been interpreted as Wol-
gemut , and it has been believed that when Diirer was making his first
experiments with the burin he copied works by the older master for practice 1

Fig. 37- The Crucifixion. Drawing of 1504, belonging to the " Green Passion ", in the Albertina, Vienna.
(From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach anil Taris.)

42

ALBRECHT DURER.

in engraving. However, the assumption that W means Wolgemut has been
disproved by the weightiest arguments ; and for the unprejudiced observer
Diirer's spirit is so plainly expressed b>' the prints in question that one is
bound to regard him as the inventor and the master W, whoever he ma\
be '), as the copyist. Among these engravings is the print of the Virgin
here reproduced (Fig. 9), which bears the title of "The Virgin with thr
IMonkey", on account of the little long-tailed ape introduced beside thi
figure — an idle addition such as the artists of that period were fond ot
making, to show the varied range of their accomplishment. Want of practici
in technical procedure betrays itself in many places, but the whole breathe^
the true poetry of Diirer's art. We feel in the landscape the atmosphere
of a cool summer evening in German\' ; clouds rise in round masses , but
the wind, which bows the tops of the old willows, drives them away. A
cold shiver passes through nature, and the m.ind wanders into a gentle
melancholy. The joung mother gazes with silent, foreboding sorrow at
her child, who plays with a bird and has no thought of suffering. For the
landscape, which gives to the print that accent in which its finest artistic
value lies , Diirer made use of a sketch from nature in the vicinity ot
Nuremberg, which is still extant. This drawing is in the British Museum,
and bears the inscription " Weier Haus " in Diirer's hand. It is one of hi^
landscape fragments, painted in water-colours, with absolute fideUt>' to
nature. — It is in the realistic surroundings, again, that the charm consists
— a charm which makes such a direct appeal to us to-day — in another
of Diirer's early engravings, "The Prodigal Son". Irregular and, in part,
dilapidated cottages and cattle-sheds, a damp soil, a dung-heap on which a
cock is pecking — such is the scene, in which the complete want of poetry
is precisely the poetical element in the picture. In the dirt of this farm-
yard, among the pigs, large and small, which jostle one another round the
feeding-trough, kneels a forlorn being, clasping his fingers together in fervent
prayer and resolving to repent and mend his ways. No doubt, many a
beholder's first look will be caught by the awkward drawing of the smock-
frock , tied round the waist like an apron , under the folds of which no
connexion is made out between the trunk of the figure and the legs : but.
instead of that, only look at the head and the hands, and see with what
contrition and ardour the man is praying! (Fig. 101.

"A good painter", Diirer once wrote, "is full of figures within, and,
even if it were possible that he should live for ever, he would always have
some new thing from his inward stock of ideas to pour forth through his
works." Woodcuts and engravings gave him the opportunity- of pouring out
from the abundance of his ideas more than would have been possible in
finished paintings. Even more than woodcuts, in which there was always
a certain limitation, because the subject had to be treated in a pecular wa\',
his engravings on copper allowed him to follow out his ideas in art and to

') Wenzel von OlmuU. C. D.

Fig, 38. The Entombjient. Drawing of 1504, belonging to the "Green Passion

(From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach and Paris.)

the Albertina, Vienna.

44 ALBRECHT DCRER.

handle subjects which did not appear to him sufticiently important to make a
pretext for a picture, or whose nature did not admit of their being carried out
in painting, restricted as the latter always is to a certain range of materials ;
or which , according to the general views of the period , were not suitable
subjects for pictures. We see the same master who in the illustrations to the
Apocalypse could depict the most sublime and supernatural themes with
such penetration — we see him, occasionally, mixing with the full tide of human
life, and reproducing in art the most ordinary matters of daily experience.
Diirer published a number of true genresubjects and groups or single figures
from daily Hfe, full of striking truth to nature and sometimes delightfully
humorous (Fig. 28, 29). He also published engravings with mythological,
allegorical and fantastic motives, in addition to his numerous religious prints.
As in his woodcuts, so in his engravings Di'irer produced effects like
those of painting , and , in fact , much more so , in the latter case because
here the execution was all the work of his own hand. In his early en-
gravings the effect of light and shade did not exceed in any essential
degree what was involved in the shading necessary to bring the forms into
relief. That was the method of all engraving in copper which was done
at that period. Diirer, however, in proportion as his dexterity improved
with practice, set himself tasks of ever-increasing difficulty in handling the
burin or graver, and he soon had such a command over this tool that he
was able to produce with it the strongest as well as the most delicate tones.
Whilst he made his name known far and wide to the masses by his power-
ful designs for woodcuts , his delicate engravings made him the favourite
of admirers and collectors of works of art. — The masterpiece of Diirer's
engraved work of this period , when he was approaching maturity, and,
technically, one of the most perfect productions of the art of engraving
altogether, is the "Coat-of-arms with the Skull" of 1503, which is at once a
pattern of heraldic design and, with its melancholy suggestiveness, an outcome
of the sincerest artistic feeling (Fig. 31). — The first engraving carried out
in light and dark masses so as to produce the full effect of a picture was
the "Adam and Eve", which appeared in 1504. A fine preliminary drawing
for this print, in the Albertina- at Vienna, shows the two figures on a per-
fectly black background (Fig. 32). In the engraving, however, as carried
out, Diirer produced a richer and more natural effect by the dark masses
of the landscape in the shady Garden of Eden (Fig. 33). In another respect,
also, this print is a landmark in the history of German art. Diirer has
made a praiseworthy attempt to bring out the natural beauty of the human
form, and we should not fail to recognise how far he reached in this res-
pect as the first in the field, with no predecessor to fall back upon for
support, since it was the habit, before his time, to represent the nude figure
as a thing of no loveliness. With well-grounded self-consciousness he in-
troduced into the print, instead of the mere monogram, a tablet for an
inscrii)tion , in which he gave the information in Latin , then the imiversal
language of the learned world, that Albrecht Diirer of Nuremberg was the

ALBRECIIT IHRKK.

45

maker ol the work. It must, indeed, be supposed, that in shaping the
figures of Adam and Eve the master got suggestions and help from seeing
works of Itahan art. It was, in fact, the art of engraving that spread the
knowledge of Italian art on this side ofl the Alps by its readily portable
productions. It was especially the engravings of the artist of Mantua, Man-
tegna , that made a great impression on Di'ircr , so much so that he was
occasionally induced actually to copy them.

Meanwhile Di'irer was again called upon to act in the capacity of painter
at the desire of the Elector of Saxony. The date 1502 on a drawing in
the Basle Museum, a composition with very numerous figures representing
the Crucifixion of Our Lord , determines the time at which an altarpiece
wa.s produced for this prince , which is now in the palace of the Prince-
Archbishop of Vienna at St. Veit near Vienna. The central panel of this
work displays the Crucifixion in almost exact agreement with the Basle
drawing. The wings , which are very narrow in consequence of the tall
shape of the central picture which they are intended to close, contain the
Bearing of the Cross and the Risen Lord appearing to Mary Magdalene;
the inconvenient shape is ver\- happily utilised, in one case, for the beauti-
ful wooded landscape , in the other for the gate of the town and the
foreshortened walls. The wings have on the outside the large figures of
St. Sebastian and St. Roch. Diner left this altarpiece to be carried out by
the hands of assistants. On the other hand, in 1504, he painted an altar-
piece ordered by the Elector of Saxony for the castle church at Witten-
berg, representing the Adoration of the Magi, entirely with his own handr"
This wonderful painting , which now adorns the group of selected master-
pieces assembled in the Tribune of the Uffizi Gallery at Florence, is so
excellently preserved that all the original charm of the colouring and the
loving care of the master's hand, which extends to the minutest details,
can be fully recognised and admired. No one who is German at heart
can fail to find himself drawn, again and again, even among all the splendid
creations of the antique and of the Italian renaissance which are united in this
single room, to this most charming picture of a German Madonna, watching
in simple dignity and silent motherly happiness while the princes from strange
lands offer reverential homage to the naked child upon her knee (Fig. 34).

The same year, 1504, is the date of two wings of an altarpiece, never
quite finished , in the Kunsthalle at Bremen , which show the hermit Saint
Onuphrius and St. John the Baptist (Fig. 35) in landscapes which suit the
figures admirably in composition.

At the same period Diirer was working once more at two long series
of woodcuts, one of which deals with the Passion of Christ, the other with
the Life of the Virgin Mary. In these two works, which go by the name
of the "Great Passion" and the "Life of the Virgin", Diirer depicted with
equal mastery the most impressive tragic actions and the most charming
scenes of domestic peace. Neither series , however, was -not finished and
published till a later time. The series of scenes from the Passion is of the

h'ig. 39. Woodcut trom the ' Lii'e oi the Virgm ': The Marriage of Joseph and Makv (,1504;.

Fig. 40. Woodcut from the ' Life of tlie Virgin": Revose of the Holy Family in Egypt (1504— 5)-

Fig. 41. Woodcut from the ''Life of the Virgin"; Christ taking Leave "F his Mother (1504 — 5}.

AI.UKKCHT Iii-KKK..

49

same size and shape as the Apocalypse, and Diirer probably took it up
soon after he finished his first work on wood. Seven of the prints agree
completely in the style of the drawing with the designs of the Apocalypse.
W'itli a striking pathos he represents first the Saviour kneeling in prayer
on the Mount of Olives and stretching out his hands as if with an in-

voluntary gesture of self-defence towards the cup ot his Passion, whilst in
the foreground the disciples sleep and in the distance the betrayer is already
passing through the gate of the garden; then Christ bound to a column
to be scourged, exposed to the cruelty of the savage torturers and the
scorn of the onlookers, as rough as they; then the same form, now lamentably
bowed, in mantle and crown of thorns, shown by Pilate to the pitiless mob.

Knackfl'ss, Albrechl Diirer. 4

so

ALBRECIIT DtRER.

The next print, magnificent in idea, shows the Redeemer, fallen on his knee
beneath the weight of the Cross, turning his head towards Veronica, who
makes ready to wipe his brow, wrung with anguish and streaming with
blood; the rough soldier, who leads the patient sufferer b\- a cord made fast
to his girdle, ceases at this moment from pulling, but one of the otficers
who accompany the march gives a merciless thrust with his staff at the neck
of the fallen victim. Then follows the Crucifixion — a crowded composition:
on one side of the cross the Virgin Mary fainting in the arms of St. John
and of one of the other Maries, on the other side the centurion with an
attendant on horseback; angels catch the blood from the wounds of the
Redeemer, and sun and moon appear here, too, with pained and sympathising
faces, for this print, generally speaking, departs least of all from the traditional
mode of treatment. The next print represents the lamentation over the
sacred body laid down under a withered tree before the entrance of the
sepulchre, and next to this comes the composition in which the body of
the Saviour, accompanied by an escort which has become larger in the
meantime, is borne to the grave, while ]\Iary still lies helpless, supported
by St. John. The landscape is admirable in these two subjects, and indeed
in others, its lines and masses forming an essential part of the composition.

Fig^ 43. Ax OLD COPY OF Dt'RER's Feast Of THE RosE-c.\RLANDS, in the Imperial Gallery, Vienna.

AI.BRECHT DURKR.

51

Kli;. 44. Christ on the Cross. Oil-painting of 1506, in tlle Dresden Cillery.
(Reproduced with the permission of the Berlin Photographic Compnny.)

The cutting is, unfortunately, less successrully executed in the Passion than
in the Apocalypse designs; in some cases the engraver's knife has visibly
spoilt and coarsened the master's line.

It is not improbable that it was the loss which his creations had suffered
at the hands of the wood-engraver that induced Diirer immediately to treat
the Passion of Christ once more in independent drawings in which he was
not hampered by any consideration of what was possible or not possible

4"*

52

ALBRECHT inKFK.

for the wood-engraver. In
1 ^04 he drew the splendid
series of twelve designs, named
from the colour of the paper
the "Green Passion" (in the
Albertina, Vienna). The sub-
jects of the series are the Kiss
of Judas, Christ before Herod.
Christ before Caiaphas , the
Scourging, the Crowning with
Thorns , the Presentation to
the People, Christ bearing the
Cross , Christ being nailed to
the Cross, the Death on the
Cross , the Descent from the
Cross , the Entombment and
the Resurrection. Diirer did
not do these drawings for the
purpose of publication , but
for himself; he treated them,
however, as a finished work
of art, the execution of which
was based on preliminary de-
signs (Fig. 36). One is in-
clined to think that he wished to make amends to himself for the dis-
satisfaction which the woodcut compositions gave him. His artistic in-
dependence asserts itself much more freely here. He has taken a delight
in throwing himself as completely as possible into the problem of representing
the historical events in the most natural manner. Consequently all unnatural
circumstances adopted with a symbolical significance in earlier art, like the
halo of rays and the personification of sun and moon , are now omitted.
Truth to nature in representing the incidents, which are brought before the
eye in a surprisingly unaffected and simple wa}-, may be said of itself to
have led the artist to the choice of more pure and natural forms. In
preparing these drawings Diirer was unmistakeably guided by a desire
for a more refined and picturesque effect than was attainable by the
coarse open strokes of the drawing on wood. It is astonishing, what
effects of colour he has attained with very slight expenditure of means, just
drawing with the brush in black and white on toned paper. The happih-
chosen greenish tone of the paper is itself expressive and contributes
essentially to the peculiar, mournful feeling of the designs ('Fig. 37, ^i^).

The greater part of the woodcuts in which Durer narrated the Life
of the Virgin Mary, as told in the Gospels and in the current legend, seems
to have been finished in the years 1503 to 1505. The keynote of these
delightful designs is very different from that of the Apocalypse and the

1 J;;- ^5. SiLU\ ut A Ht.\D.

For the picture of Christ among the Doctors.
Drawing in the Alhertina, Vienna.

ALBRECHT Dt'RER.

53

Pas_sion. A true instinct has led Di'irer to choose a smaller scale for subjects
which dg_nqt aim at grandeur of effect, but rely on the poetry which is
insejiarable from them ; and a greater delicacy of drawing corresponds to
the reduced size. In spite of the special difficulties which this occasioned
to the engraver, the majority of the designs are, once more, quite well cut.
Diircr must either have found more skilful and practised hands for this
task, or else have spent more time in personally superintending the cutting

Fig. 46. Christ .\mosg the Doctors ik the Temple.

Painting of 1506, in the Picture-gallery of the Palazzo Barberini at Rome.

(From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach and Paris.

of the blocks. The stor\- in pictures begins, according to the old legend
of the parents of the Virgin , with the scene in which the victim , which
Joachim intends to offer in the temple, is refused by the high-priest, because
his childlessness after twenty years of marriage with Anne is taken to be
a sign that God's curse rests on the couple. Then there appears to Joachim,
who has parted from his wife and taken refuge with the shepherds in the
wilderness in sorrow at this disgrace, an angel who foretells to him the
birth of a daughter. The landscape is magnificent in this scene: a long
slope, on which the sheep are feeding, at the edge of a wild forest with

54

ALBRECHT DCRER.

Fig. 47. Portrait of a .\l.\n lTn"KKo\vn, 1505. In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna.
(From a photograph by J. Lowy, Vienna.)

a view of the sea , with its rocky coast , lying far below in the distance.
On returning to the city after receiving this promise, Joachim meets Anne
again under the Golden Gate of the Temple, which is an arch of late
Gothic design , forming a frame to the picture ; while the two greet one
another with a hearty embrace, the neighbours who stand at a certain
distance — an admirable group — make their remarks on the encounter, and
a beggar hastens up to profit by the glad excitement into which the husband
and wife are thrown by it. Then we enjoy a view of the bed-chamber in
which Anne's new-born babe is being bathed , while a servant carries the
broth to the mother's bedside, by which the old midwife has fallen asleep,
and a number of gossips celebrate the event with cake and ale. It is
just a scene of Nuremberg life in Diirer's own day. There is only the
beautiful figure of an angel, who hovers aloft on a cloud and kneels to do
homage to the child below him, to inform us that this child, Mary, is a
being of no common order. The following scene is laid in the outer court
of the Temple, where the money-changers who desecrate the house of prayer
are not forgotten. The growing child steps forth from the group of kinsfolk
who assist at the ceremony, and mounts the steps which lead to the

Al.liRKCHT nfRKR.

55

Fig 48. "Portrait of a young man. In the collection of pictures at Hampton Court.
(From the first annual issue of the Society for Publishing Photographs to Illustrate the History of Art.)

Sanctuary, in order to dedicate herself to the service of God, while the
priests wait for her at the top. In the architecture of the Temple and its
court Diirer has endeavoured to produce something in "antique" style —
that was the term in those days for what we now call Renaissance. The
church architecture is rather Gothic than antique in the simple and beautiful
design which represents the betrothal of Mary, now a full-grown maiden,
to Joseph in the presence of the high-priest (Fig. 39). The next page
shows l\Iar>" sitting by her pn'c-die?! in a spacious chamber, the ceiling
of which is supported by handsome vaulting ; she receives the message
of the angel with a lowly bearing. Then there follows a perfect master-
piece, the salutation of Mary and Elizabeth before the door of Elizabeth's
dwelling, on the threshold of which Zacharias appears, courteously greeting
the visitor. Mary has come across the mountains , and we see far off,
behind the shady pines and forest-trees of the middle distance, the mountain
range soaring ever higher with varying outlines, in a clear atmosphere and
brilliant light; a white ball of cloud has detached itself from the most
distant and lofty summit and fades slowly away into the deep hue of the
summer sky. One does not know what to admire most, the sjilendid effect
of the landscape or the keen observation of the feminine heart which the
figures reveal. Then we see Mary kneeling in a ruined stable bctore the

56

AI.BREniT DIRKK

babe to whom she has given
birth; little angels contem-
plate the newly born with
childish joy and curiosity,
and other angels chant his
praises in the air; from one
side Joseph enters with hasty
step, carrying the lantern
which he has been to fetch
— we see that he was not
present at the mystery of
Nativity — and through the
other door the shepherds
are already approaching
with bagpipes and shawms
to salute the child. In the
next scene Mary and Joseph
are present at the circum-
cision of the infant Jesus,
which is performed by the
priests in a kind of chapel.
After this they use the ruins
of a castle-wall, which now
serve as a stable, as a place
in which to receive the ho-
mage offered to the child
by the three Kings or INIagi
who have come with a
mounted escort. In the fol-
lowing print Mary presents
the offering for her puri-
fication in the portico of
the Temple, curiously but
grandly conceived , the re-
moter part of which is filled
with gloom. Then Joseph
leads Mary, who sits with
the child on the saddled
ass, along a path which
leads into an endless forest,
to which a date-palm, drawn
true to nature, imparts an
oriental character; a light
cloud, filled with small
cherubim , glides over the

Fig. 49. Ad.\m. Oil-painung 01 1507, in the Prado Museum, Madrid.

(From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co.,

Dornach and Paris.)

ALBRECIIT nrKEK.

57

Fig. 5c. Eve. Oil-painting ot 1507, in [lie Pr,ido Museum, M.idriil.

(From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co.,

Dornach and Paris.)

fu<^itives through the tops
of the trees. Then follows a
print, delightfully conceived,
which symbolizes the sojourn
of the Holy Family in un-
disturbed peace in Egypt.
The fugitives have found
shelter in a place, evidently
out of the world , where
ruinous and sound buildings
lean one against another.
They are in the o[)en air,
busied about their daily
work, not far from the steps
of an abandoned, half dila-
pidated house, with a jet
of water plashing into a tank
close by. Joseph is hewing
a piece of timber into shape
with the adze ; Mary sits, in
the quiet enjoyment of a
mother's happiness, beside
the cradle, spinning. Three
tall angels and one little one
are grouped round the head
of the cradle ; a troop of
little angels busy themselves
with childlike energy in
picking up and clearing away
the splinters which drop
from Joseph's carpentry ;
others, as part of their own
game, bring toys to amuse
the infant Jesus when he
wakes from his sleep. Up
in the sky God the Father
and the Holy Spirit look
down on the idyllic scene,
which gladdens the heart
of everyone who beholds it
(Fig. 40). Then follows at
once the picture of the event
which first makes it known
that Mary's Son must quit
the narrow circle of home

58

ALBRECHT DURER.

life, to fulfil his calling. Mary and Joseph find Jesus, aged twelve, among
the Doctors in the Temple. All the nameless agony that the mother has
to suffer during her Son's passion has been simply suggested by Diirer
in a single composition of penetrating force and expressiveness. Jesus is prc-

Fig. 51. The JIartyrdom of the ten thousand Christians is Persi.a. P.^inting ol 1508.

In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna.

(From a photograph by J. Lbw-y, Vienna.)

paring to tread the way which leads to suffering and death. He has taken
leave of his mother and now turns round once more and blesses her, while she
falls on her knees and is only prevented from sinking to the ground by the
careful support of a friend ; she wrings her hands in anxiety and torment
of soul and her gaze seems to be rivetted on her son's eyes (Fig. 41).

AI.KRKrilT DfRKR.

59

After these sixteen
prints had been finish-
ed, tliere was but little
wanting to complete
tlie series of the Lite
of the Virgin. Circum-
stances, however, pre-
vented this Httle from
being accomplished till
several years later.

The fact that un-
authorised copies ol
Diirer's woodcuts were
engraved at Venice, anel
that the German master
wished on that account
til ])etition the Venetian
government for the pro-
tection of his rights as
their inventor, is said to
have been the first occa-
sion of a journey to Ve-
nice, which Di'irer under-
tookjn 1505, and of his
prolonged stay there.

His most important
occupation at Venice,

however, was in carrying out an altarpiece which he painted on commission
for the resident German merchants to be placed in their church of San Barto-
lommeo. This was the "Feast of the Ros.e- Garlands'!, now in the Premon-
stratensian monastery of Strahow at Prague. In a com])osition of ricli and
festal grandeur, the Virgin Mary and the intant Jesus are represented as the
dispensers of the rosary : they adorn the heads of the Emperor Maximilian I.,
and the Pope Julius II. with wreaths of natural roses; on either side a
number of other persons are being crowned in the same way by St. Dominic
and a company of angels. In the background the painter himself appears,
together with his dearest and most faithful friend , the famous humanist
Wilibald Pirckheimer ; the artist holds a sheet of paper in his hand on
which we may read, "The German, Albrecht Di'irer, carried out this work
in 1506 in the space of five months" (Fig. 42). This much admired picture
led the Doge and Patriarch of Venice, even before it was finished, to visit
the German painter in his studio. It was subsequently bought b\- the
Emperor Rudolph II. for a very large sum, and conveyed to Prague with
extraordinary precautions. In later and more careless times, unfortunately,
it suffered severe injury, and was still more ruined by the heads of Mary

i'iSS^iXri-r>>, :i^^:::

Fig. 52. Study for the hands of a praying Apostle in the

Heller Altarpiece (1508).

Brush-drawing in the Albertina, Vienna.

6o

ALBRECHT DURER.

and the infant Jesus, as well as the sky and some other parts, being re-painted
and modernised with an utter want of feeling,'. We can still admire the
beauty of the figures and the composition, and in the majority of the persons
even the character and expression of the heads and hands ; but the charm
of colouring and of the masterly execution , once so highly applauded,
preserves its effect only here and there, to make us doubly regret the
havoc which has been wrought. We derive a better idea of the original
brillianc\- of the picture and especially of the head of the Virgin from an
old copy in the Imperial Gallery at Vienna, although this copy is far from
doing justice to Diirer's delicate execution, especially in the heads (Fig. 43).

^'S- 53- Sti'DV for the head of an Apostle looking upwards in the Heller ,\ltarpie;ce.
Indian ink drawing, heightened with white, in the Print-cabinet at the Berlin Museum.

Diirer painted a number of portraits and small pictures ot minor im-
portance during his stay at Venice. The best of these is the Crucifixion
in the Dresden Gallery, a fine and impressive painting and a truly great
work, in spite of the diminutive scale on which it is executed. Darkn. -
descends on the earth; only on the horizon, over the sea, there flames a
yellow- streak of light. The wind tosses the hair and the loincloth of the
Crucified, whose body appears as light out of darkness in its strong reliel.
There is no convulsive movement in his frame to betra)' the agony which
he is enduring; peace has come over the sufferer, he raises his noble face
with an expression of inflexible confidence, and we almost hear the words:

1 IK- =4- Siiuv oi DUAiEK", for an Apusllc in the lltllci Aliarpiccc.
Indian ink drawing, heightened with white, in the Print-cabinet at the Berlin Museum.

62 ALBRECHT DURER. ■

"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit " (Fig. 44). In the Barberini
Collection at Rome there is a picture, painted, according to the inscrii)tion,
in five days, representing Jesus , aged twelve, engaged in disputing with
the Doctors. It is the rapid record, though based on preparatory studies
(Fig. 45), of an idea w liicli may have been suggested to Diirer by the sight
of Leonardo da Vinci's characteristic heads. The whole thing really consists
merely of heads and hands, but these are without exception full of expression
(Fig. 46). He may possibly have painted at Venice the gortrait of a fair-
haired young man, dated 1507, in the Imperial Gallery at Vienna, which
informs_us how_Durer had learnt by looking at Italian works of art to put
into a face all the sharp precision of characterisation which was peculiar to
him, without painting the features as hardly as he had done in his earlier
portraits (Fig. 47). There is a very curious thing about this picture. On
the back ot the panel, which has this agreeable-looking young man in front,
Diirer has painted Avarice in the shape of an ugly, lean old woman, holding
a bag of gold coins and laughing scornfully at the beholder. No doubt
the young man gave Durer an order for his portrait and then refused to
pay for it, and the artist gave vent to his annoyance by the allegory which
he painted in a broad style and strong colours on the back of the portrait,
which was now left on his hands. Of about the same date, in all probability,
is the excellent portrait at Hampton Court, the head of another young man
with fair, wool-like hair hanging down, a hitherto unnoticed work of Diirer's,
which has only recently received attention , and is remarkable for its ex-
cellent preservation (Fig. 4<S). ')

From Venice Diirer made an excursion to Bologna and Ferrara. He
began a journey to Mantua, but abandoned it again because its object, to
make the personal acquaintance of jMantegna , for whom he had so high a
respect, was frustrated by the latter's death.

We have information about Diirer's life at Venice in a number ot
letters, still extant, which the master wrote to his friend Pirckheimer. 'We
learn that the German painter excited the curiosity and the envy of the
native artists ; that many of the nobility, but few of the painters, were well-
disposed towards him; but that among these few was the great master
Giovanni Bellini, now an old man of eighty. We watch the gradual growth
of the altarpiece; we hear Diirer's complaint that this work takes up too
much of his time and compels him to decline a number of more remune-
rative orders; and we share his joy in the final success of the picture and
the approval which it met with. We see him roaming through the alleys
of the city on the lagoons, to carry out all kinds of commissions for his
friend. We learn how contented he is with his life abroad, though he does
not forget his affectionate care for his own folk at home, and reckons up
his profits and earnings like a careful manager. He answers his friend's

') This picture, whkli was in Charles I.'s collection, is proved to be of the time of Durer's
residence at Venice by the date 1506, which, together with Diirer's usual monogram, is on the
panel, though concealed by the frame. C. D.

ALBRECHT DCKER.

63

rough jests in high spirits,
and when he thinks of going
back he cannot suppress the
words : " How I shall shiver
after this sunshine ! "

It was not till tlie^be-
ginning of 1507 that Dtirer
returned to Nuremberg. His
residence at Venice had
been of great importance
for his education in art.
Contact witl* Italian art had
helped him to advance in
his own art, without making
him pay for the gain by
the least self-surrender. His
views had become wider,
his sense of form more re-
fined; but his manner of
expression remained , like
his sentiment , thoroughly-
German. It is one of Diirer's

Chk[5t on the Mount of Olives (i5ofl).
From the engraved Passion.

highest titles to fame that
the manly consciousness of
his skill in art and his joy
and pride in feeling himself
to be a German, prevented pj^

him from making any at-
tempt to give up his own

firm footing and become dependent on foreign art. It was imitation of the
Italians that was the ruin of German art after his time.

After his return Diirer produced several pictures of fairly large dimen-
sions in quick succession. The first was a representation of Adam and Eve,
life-sized figures, on two panels. Diirer had seen in Italy with what beauty
an artist can clothe the nude human figure. In these two figures of m.an
and woman, which display a perfection of form which had been unattainable
till then in northern art, he gave, as it were, public proof of the new views
of art which had been revealed to him in the country of long artistic
tradition. But it would be very unjust to Diirer to look at these two
figures merely with a view to form, in which they are still by no means
free from the defects of the north. The best thing in the pictures, really,
is the delicacy of feeling with which the emotions of the two persons are
divined and expressed. The expression is not contained merely in the heads.
In one case there is a mixture of feminine reserve with cajolery and se-
ductiveness; in the other timidit\- and hesitation arc reconciled with a lack

64

ALBRECHT Dl'RER.

of force to resist; and these
']ualities are brought to view
in their whole figures, even
to the feet and the tips of
the fingers, with a mastery
which is ahnost unrivalled
in its way (Fig. 49 and 50).
We can imagine what an
immense sensation these
two panels must have made
on their first appearance.
They were copied at an
early date. Two collections,
the Pitti Palace at Florence
and the Prado Gallery at
-Madrid, lay rival claims to
the possession of the origi-
nals. The dispute is , per-
haps, superfluous. We can-
not but suppose that the
master himself resolved to
repeat this work , in which
he had achieved a success
without precedent. That
the execution is by his own
hand is undisputed in the
case of the Madrid version;
but in the case of that at
Florence also , though its
state of preservation is, unfortunately, not so good , there can hardly be a
doubt of the originality of the work. The figures in both versions agree
exactly with one another. In other respects the two works differ in the
same manner as the engraving of 1 504 and the drawing. At Florence the
figures stand out, as they would naturally do according to the subject, from
a landscape background enlivened by animals. At Madrid they arc painted
in relief against a plain black background , in order that they may suffer
no diminution of their full effect ; even the trunk of the tree with the
serpent at Eve's side is not fully carried out as part of the painting, but
merely suggested. On the lower branch of the tree in the Madrid picture
of Eve there hangs a tablet on which we read that "the German Albrecht
Diirer painted the picture in 1507" ('Albertus Durer alemanus faciebat post
virginis partum 1507').

The two life-sized single figures did not give the master so much
trouble as a picture with countless small figures for which he received an
order from the Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony, viz. " The ten thousand ;

Fig. 56. The Kiss of Judas (1508). From the engraved Passion.

I'lK- S7- i^E ViKGiN AND CuiLD. Pen- drawing tiaicJ u ui. ..a-uf^ulotir, 1509. Basle Museum.
(From a photograph by Braun, Clemen: and Co., Dornach and Paris.)
Knackfuss, Albrecht Durer. 5

66

ALBRECHT DtTRER.

Martyrs" (the Persian
Christians put to death
by King Sapor). Diircr
employed the vast amount
of industry which he pos-
sessed in painting this
])icture, at which he work-
ed for over a jear, finish-
ing it in the summer of
1508 (Fig. 51). It is now
in the collection of pic-
tures in the Imperial Mu
seum at Vienna. Here we
have to admire before all
things Dlirer's masterly
skill in getting a pictu-
resque effect out of the
great masses of figures,
in which the landscape,
piled up in bold outlines,
plays a prominent part,
and his inventiveness in
details which give a certain
attractiveness even to so
gruesome a subject. The
painting is carried out
with incredible delicacy,
but the original harmony
of the colouring has un-
fortunately been spoilt by
the fact that the lapis lazuli blue which was liberally used has in course
of time come through the colours with which it was mixed and risen to
the surface, so that it now tells much more strongly than it ought to do
according to the master's intention.

Diirer then proceeded to paint with the same scrupulous care the
central panel of an altarpiece of considerable dimensions, for which he had
received a commission in 1507 from the wealthy merchant of Frankfort,
Jakob Heller. He wrote himself to his patron that he had never begun a
piece of work in all his life which pleased him more, and even after the
work had been delivered in August, 1509, he was anxious that it should
be carefully treated. A number of studies from nature, delicately drawn
with the brush , bear witness to his diligent and conscientious preparation
for this task (Fig. 52 — 54). The subject of the picture was the Assumption
of the Virgin. Below, the Apostles stand round the empty grave, and
above in the clouds, in which hosts of little angels are flying, the Virgin

Fig. 58. The Man of Sorrows.
Frontispiece to the Engraved Passion, 1509.

ALBRECHT DURER.

67

is crowned Queen of Heaven by God the Father and by Christ. The master
himself regarded this picture as his best work and it combined a grand
unity of picturesque effect with the most devoted elaboration of detail. We
can only form a faint idea of its beauty from the sight of an old copy
which is preserved in the Historical Museum at Frankfort , together with
six of the paintings on the wings, which were carried out by pupils. The

Fig. 59. Frontispiece to the '"Life of the Virgin" (1510).

original, for which the Emperor Rudolph 11. in vain offered lOOOO florins
to the Dominicans of Frankfort, in whose church the altarpiece was placed,
was acquired subsequently by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, and fell a victim
to the flames in 1674 at the burning of the Palace at Munich.

The next large picture which Diirer painted has met with a better fate.
This is the picture of "All Saints", also called the Holy Trinity, finished
in I 51 1, which he painted for the chapel of the Landauer Cloister, or House
of the Twelve Brethren, at Nuremberg, a charitable institution founded by-
two citizens of that town. When the chapel was dedicated, it was named

Fig. 60. The Death or the ViKr.is, woodcut [1510} from the "Life of the \'irgin'

Fij;. 6i. The Assumption and Cukonahun ot- thk Vikuin (1510), from the "Life o( tlie Virgin".

ALBRECHT DURER.

Fig. 62. Chkist Ai'i'EAKlNG Tu Si. JMakv M,\gd.-vi.ene, froiii the 'Littli: Passion".

in honour of All Saints ; this circumstance determined the choice of the
subject for the altarpiece, the assembly of the saints united in adoration
of the Triune God (Fig. 66). This picture, well preserved and unscathed,
adorns the Imperial Gallery at Vienna. The harmony of the colouring
has alone suffered to some extent by the blue coming through, as well as
by the fading of the shadows in the green drapery. But we can still admire
in all their original splendour the most perfect drawing and execution
of this incomparable masterpiece. There is probably no other product
of German painting in which magnificence and poetry are united to the
same extent. We need not hesitate to assert that this masterly creation
of Diirer's is the most sublime work of sacred art produced on this side of
the Alps. If he who beholds it is himself a believer, it transports his spirit
to the abodes of the blessed. The Holy Trinity appears amidst radiant
clouds, surrounded by angehc choirs , the circles of which vanish into im-

/i

ALBRF.C1IT Dt-RKR.

71

measurable distance.
God the Father, in
crown and kingly
mantle, enthroned u[ion
the double rainbow,
holds in his hands the
Cross on which God
the Son offers himself
for mankind, and over
his head the Holy
Ghost hovers in the
form of a dove. On
either side kneel the
elect of the Old Testa-
ment and the saints
of Christendom , with
the Virgin Mary and
John the Baptist at
their head. Next to
them are ranged on a
lower circle of clouds
the unnumbered host
of the nameless saints of

'-i^t-y'-^y '

Fig. 63. The Man of Sorrows. Frontispiece to the "Great Passion".

beggar-woman

ranks, from emperor and pope to peasant and
Far below lies the earth , a wide landscape lighted with
ros)- beams from heaven. The donor of the picture, Matthaus Landauer,
is represented among the Saints in a humble attitude, near the left side
of the picture, close to the Cardinal who turns round with a gesture of
encouragement. Albrecht Diirer himself stands on the ground below, with-
drawn modestly to a distance as compared with the inhabitants of heaven,
but gazing with just self-conscioussness towards the mortal beholder, to
whom he names himself as the author of the picture. Both in the picture
of the Ten Thousand IMartyrs and in the Heller altarpiece, as first of all in
the Feast of the Rose-Garlands, he had painted himself in the background,
and in patriotic pride added to his name the epithet "German". On the
tablet which bears the inscription in the All Saints' altarpiece he named
himself, with pride in his native place, as a son of the town in which the
picture w'as to be kept. The All Saints' altarpiece, which is on a very
small scale in proportion to its mighty subject, was exhibited, in the place
for which it was intended, in a splendidly carved wooden frame, for which
Diirer himself had made the design. At a time in which the people of
Nuremberg had forgotten to value their great fellow-citizen as he deserved,
that zealous Diirer-collector, the Emperor Rudolph II., succeeded in acquiring
the picture. The empty frame was left behind at Nuremberg, and is now
in the Germanic Museum, unfortunately disfigured by a coat of grey ])aint.
It is a structure composed of a richly decorated base, ornamental columns

Tig." 64. Christ taken prisoner (1510), from the "Great Passion".

Fi, . 6;. The Resukkection (1510), from the "(JrcMi Passiun

74

AM5RI-:CHT DUKER.

at the sides, an entablature supported b\' the latter, and above this a
semicircular headpiece. In the tympanum of the arch at the top and in thr
frieze which covers the entablature there is a representation of the Last
Judgment with carved figures; on the sides of the headpiece there arc
detached figures of angels with trumpets and on the summit of the whoK
there is an angel with a cross.

In the invention of this rich architectural setting to his pictijrc Diirer
declared himself a true Renaissance artist in the sense that he repjaccd
late Gothic decoration by the revived forms of classical antiquity. He had
seen works of art at Venice in which the motives of antique architecturr
and decorative art were reflected and he did homage to the predominant
taste of his own day in attempting to introduce similar motives in his own
creations. Even before his visit to Venice he had occasionally — especially
in the Life of the Virgin — endeavoured to compose out of his confused
ideas buildings intended to resemble the antique. He now possessed, it
not an actual understanding, at least some sort of knowledge of the archi-
tecture of antiquity, obtained by the sight of the productions of the Re-
naissance in North Italy. Perhaps the prettiest example of his attempts t'
make an independent application of the knowledge which he had acquired
in this connexion is a drawing of the year 1509 preserved in the Basic
Museum. It is a pen-drawing slightly washed with water-colours, representint;
the Virgin and the infant Jesus in a composition full of charm and grace,
watching the play of little child-angels, while the foster-father, Joseph, tireil
out with work, has fallen asleep at the table behind them ; above this loveI\-
group is an arched portico, open at the sides, the rich forms of which
occupy the larger part of the sheet. In this case Durer has designed with
evident pleasure and with a refined sense of beaut>' a piece of architecture
in antique style, with Corinthian colums and a coffered barrel-roof (Fig. 57 .

In the year in which he finished the picture of the Trinity Diirer
published his "three large books" as a connected work, that is to say the
two series, the Life of the Virgin and the Great Passion , which he had
completed in the meantime, and a new edition of the Apocalypse with a
frontispiece added to it.

In front of this great collection of woodcuts stands the newly drawn
frontispiece to the Life of the Virgin. In this charming design, which fills
only a portion of the page, in order to leave room for the title, we see
the Virgin Mary with the child at her breast, represented, at the same time,
as the woman of the Apocalypse, with the moon under her feet, surrounded
by the sun , and having a crown of twelve stars over her head. It is
wonderful what an impression of radiant light Diirer has managed to produce
with black lines (Fig. 591. Next to the title are placed the sixteen cut^
which have already been mentioned. After these come two splendid designs,
added in 15 10, in which we see clearly, when we compare them with the
earlier ones , how much Diirer had perfected his style in the meantime.
The first 6f the two represents the death-chamber of the Virgin. We are

AI.BRlXirr DUREK.

75

Kig. 66. The Adoration of ihi-: Tkinitv rv all Saints. Altarpiece, 1511. In the Imperial Gallery, \'ienna.
(From a photograph by J. Lowy, Vienna.)

conscious of the solemn silence , in which all voices are hushed and no
footstep is heard, in the circle of the Apostles round the bed, on which the
Mother of Christ, with her countenance beautified by death and an expression
of blissful peace upon it, has just drawn her last breath (Fig. 6o). Then
comes the Assumption of the Virgin , a composition which in its general
arrangement resembles the Heller altarpiece , though in all details it is
freshly thought out. Below, the Apostles are assembled round the stone
coffin which was to have contained the bod\' of the Virgin and look up
to heaven full of astonishment at the incomprehensible event. Above, she
who has been released from the grave kneels in a space full of radiant
beams , over clouds and rainbow, with her form transfigured and made

Kig. 67 The Holy Trinity. Woodcut of 1311-

Fig. 68. The M.\ss of St. Gregory. Woodcut of 1511.

78 ALBRECHT DtTRER.

younger, and receives the crown of heaven from the Triune God (Fig. 6 1 i.
After this there follows yet another and extremely delightful concluding
design, which must have been produced, by the style of the drawing, before
the visit to Venice, and which forms, as it were, an epilogue to the stor\
of Our Lady's life. The Virgin sits as Queen of Heaven , with the child
Jesus on her lap, worshipped by angels and saints , but she sits not on a

Fig. 69. The Holy Family. Woodcut of 1511.

celestial throne but in a familiar, earthly chamber, as a gracious intercessor
whom mortals dare to approach.

On the title-page which Diirer designed for the Passion, after he had
made up his mind to publish this work which had been put on one side
for so long, Christ appears as the Man of Sorrows, a mode of representa-
tion which had come into use in the late middle ages, as a compendium
of all the Saviour's sufferings ; stripped , scourged , crowned with thorns,

ALBRECHT DURER.

79

mocketi, with his liands
and feet pierced with
nails, brought down
even to the grave, the
Saviour fixes a look
filled with profound
agony on the beholder
(Fig. 63). In the Passion
the difference between
the older compositions
and the four new ones
dated 15 10, in which
the cutting lias been
successfully done, is
very great. One of these
pages, the Last Supper,
forms the commence-
ment of the series. The
saying, "One of you
shall betray me ", causes
an excitement among
the apostles; Judas
cowers, hides his money-
bag and makes as if
he were the last one
whom the words could
concern. The next of
the cuts of 1 5 10 re-
presents the Betrayal

of Christ, a scene full of animation and passionate movement. The hand and
lips of the betrayer still touch the head of the Betrayed, and the latter is
already bound with cords, while the fierce, tumultuous throng make ready
to drag off the victim , who , in this fearful moment , in which his destiny
of suffering is being accomplished in fact , sends a look of human terror
to implore help from heaven. The fierce anger of Peter, who brandishes
the sword over the servant Malchus, thrown violently to the ground, is as
ea.sy to understand as it is ineffectual in result (Fig. 64). The two other
new compositions form the conclusion of the Passion, Christ's Descent into
Hell and his Resurrection. The draughtsman carries us by the force of
his imagination into Limbo, where Christ delivers the Souls of the Patriarchs
out of a deep dungeon amidst the ineffectual raging of hideous devilish
shapes. Behind those who have been set free we see the open gate of
Hell, which discloses to the eye nothing but a boundless sea of ever-burning
flames, the heat of which, as it rises, makes a draught in which the Redeemer's
flag of victory is seen to flutter. No less magnificent is the picture of the

Fig. 70. The Vikgin \vtin i hk i-kak cli uI'E.s.

Oil-painting of 1512, in the Imperial Gallery, Vienna.

(From a photograph by J. Lowy, Vienna.)

8o ALBRECHT DURER.

Resurrection. A strong guard of armed men surrounds the sepulchre. Some
of them are asleep; an old warrior gives a rough shake to one of these
who are forgetting their duty; one is just waking, and opens his eyes with
a yawn, seeing without yet comprehending what he sees ; others, however,
are aware of the miracle which is taking place. Over the closed stone lid
of the grave, on which are seen the seals placed by those in authority still
intact, the Saviour ascends, received into a cloud and greeted by hosts
of cherubim. He raises his countenance, with the threefold glory of rays
surrounding it which betokens his Divinity, towards heaven ; in his left hand
he holds the banner of victory, with his right hand he blesses the world
which he has redeemed by the accomplishmeni of his Passion (Fig. 65).

The drawing which Diirer prefixed as a frontispiece to the Apocalypse
represents St. John the Evangelist, to whom the Mother of God appears
as the "Woman clothed with the Sun" of Revelations.

It is remarkable that in printing the text of the Life of the Virgin
and of the Passion — Latin verses composed bj- his fiiend Chelidonius, a
Benedictine monk — Diirer adopted the newly introduced Renaissance type,
the so-called Latin type, which the Italian printers had invented in imitation
of the old Roman handwriting. For the text of the Apocalypse he retained
the late Gothic characters of the first edition.

In the same year, 1511, Diirer published a small book which contains
a pictorial narrative of the Passion of Christ in yet another version, accom-
panied by the poems of Chelidonius. This book also bears the title of a
"Passion" (Passio Christi), and it has long been usual to distinguish this
series of cuts from those of the large book by the names of the "Little"
and "Great Passion". The Little Passion consists of thirty-seven woodcuts,
a design for the title-page of Christ as Man of Sorrows sitting on a stone,
and thirty-six cuts of the small size of about five by four inches , which
tell the story of the act of Redemption in detail and in a more popular
manner, in compositions mostly of a few figures only. All the small designs,
some of which are dated 1509, others 1510, seem to have been drawn
quickly, one after another. The narrative begins with the Fall and the
Expulsion from Paradise, as the events which gave occasion for the Re-
demption. After the Incarnation of the Redeemer has been set forth by
the Annunciation and Nativity, the Farewell of Jesus to his Mother forms
the introduction to the events of the week of suffering, which begin with
the Entry into Jerusalem. Before and after the Last Supper, the Expulsion
of the Money-changers from the Temple and the Washing of the Apostles'
feet are inserted. The Prayer on the Mount of Olives, in which Christ, in
conflict within his soul, holds up his hands before his brow and presses
them together, exceeds in grandeur and impressive depth of conception
the corresponding design of the Great Passion. The occurrences which
intervene between the arrest and the condemnation are depicted in full
detail, from the confrontation with Annas to the scene of Pilate washing
his hands. After the Bearing of the Cross, Veronica, standing, with the

Fig. 71. Charlemagne. Oil-pninting of 1512, in the Germanic Museum, Nuremberg.
Knackfuss, Albreclit DiJrer. 6

82 ALBRECHT DtJRER.

imprint of Christ's countenance on her napkin, between St Peter an.i
St. Paul , follows as a subject apart. We see Christ being nailed to the
Cross, and uttering the Last Words as he hangs upon it; then his descent
to the lower world, his body being taken down from the Cross, wept over
at the foot of the Cross , and laid in the sepulchre. The Resurrection is
followed by the appearance of the Risen Saviour to his Mother, to Mar\
Magdalene — a very poetical composition (Fig. 62) — to the disciples a;
Emmaus and to St. Thomas. Then follows the Ascension , in which the
vanishing of Christ is symbolized in a curious , but effective manner, b\
nothing remaining visible except his feet. The Descent of the Holy Ghost,
and the Second Coming of Christ at the Last Day, conclude the series.

Nothing says more of the inexhaustible fertility of Diirer's imagination
than the fact that he was occupied at the same time in finishing his work
upon a series of line-engravings which also dealt with the Passion of the
Saviour, in yet another series of compositions.

In addition to the four books, Diirer brought into the market quite a
number of single woodcuts. In 15 10 he also published a few woodcuts
with a rhyming text of some length which he had composed himself and
marked as his intellectual property by adding his monogram at the end ;
he wrote maxims of conduct, admonitions to prepare for death, and medi-
tations on the Passion of Christ.

The date 1 5 1 1 is found on several single woodcuts of special beauty.
Before all , there is the large cut of the Holy Trinity, an outcome of his
studies for the Landauer Altarpiece, and itself a sublime picture, wonder-
fully superhuman in feeling. "God so loved the world, that he gave his
only-begotten Son", is the theme of the composition. Above the clouds,
in which the winds are blowing in four directions , God the Father is en-
throned in infinite space, filled with the radiance which emanates from the
Godhead. He holds the Son upon his lap, in the figure of the victim
who has suffered martyrdom and death , and a shudder of pain passes
through the angelic hosts, who bear among them the emblems of Christ's
suffering and death (Fig. Sj). This cut is a masterpiece of the wood-
engraver's art, giving full effect and clearness to every stroke of the draughts-
man. Dijrer had now so trained the forces which he employed in cutting
his designs on wood, that he was able to entrust them with tasks which,
like this print, attained the full effect and all the delicacy of line of an
engraving on copper.

Another large woodcut of the same year, "The Mass of St. Gregory",
is also one of the most magnificent creations of Di'irer's poetical imagination.
We see how before the eyes of Pope Gregory, as he is saying Mass , the
retable of the altar turns to a coffin, from which the Man of Sorrows rises,
surrounded by the instruments of torture and the other familiar emblems
of his Passion; lamenting angels bow before the touching figure, which
gazes at the spectator with a look of unspeakable sorrow. In the back-
ground everything is lost in a dark vapour, which comes Hke a veil in front

ALBRECHT DURER.

83

Fig. 72. St. Jekome with the willow-tkke. Dry-point, 1512.

of the ministering bishops, gathers into thick masses of cloud, and mingles
with the smoke of the incense. It is astonishing how perfectly the visionary
character of an apparition is brought to view: the phantom stands before
the beholder as if in tangible and corporeal shape, but in the next moment
it will vanish , the mist will melt away, and the converted recipient of this
mark of divine favour will perceive nothing but the real people about him
who have had no share in it (Fig. 68).

There is the genuine poetry of a holy life on earth in the print of the
Holy Family surrounded by their kinsfolk. Ever}' one of these persons is
a character, and a few tree-trunks and the ridge of a hill conjure up the

6*

84

AI.HRKCHT nrUKK.

impression ofoutdoDr com-
fort and a charming land-
scai)c (Fig. 69).

The paintings which
Diner carried out in suc-
cession to the Landauer
altarpiecc demanded no
such immense degree ot
industry as tlic master with
his dehcate and conscien-
tious style of execution
had spent upon the altar-
pictures of the last few
years. They are works on
a large scale and yet of
considerably smaller di-
mensions. The Picture-
Gallery at Vienna possesses
a charming little Madonna
of the \ear 15 12, which is
usually named after a pear
cut open which the infant
Jesus holds in his little
hand as he rests upon his
mother's arms (Fig. yd).
Diirer's Italian contempo-
raries, like the artists of
classical antiquity, saw in
sensuous beauty a means
of expressing spiritual perfection, and the beauty which they presented to
the eye in their Madonnas was far beyond anything which lay in the power
of the German master to produce. But not one of them is his equal in
portraying maidenly holiness. No beaut\- of form could produce so lasting
an effect on the beholder as the undefinable charm of perfect purity of heart
which dwells in the sweet girlish face of this Madonna of Diirer's.

Di'irer, further, painted in 15 12, as a commission for his native town,
which had honoured him in 1509 by making him a member of the council,
two life-sized portraits of emperors to adorn the "relic chamber", an
apartment devoted to the custody of the imperial jewels. The emperors
to be represented were Charles the Great as founder of the Empire and
Sigismund as the Emperor who had entrusted the "relics" to the care
of the loyal town of Nuremberg. For the latter, Diirer made use of an
older portrait; in his Charles the Great he created the ideal picture of the
mighty ruler, which has lived ever since in the ideas of the German people
(Fig. 71). The town never parted with these pictures, and they are now,

Fig. 73. Christ before Caiaph.\s (1512).
From the engraved Passion.

ALBRECHT DtJRER.

85

very largely re-painted, in
the Germanic Museum.

After that, Diirer aban-
doned oil-painting almost
entirely for several years
in succession. Compara-
tively short as the time
might be in which he pro-
duced the pictures which
he had spent the greatest
pains on preparing, and
which he had wrought out
with the utmost detail, he
could not get on fast
enough for his own satis-
faction with the " laborious
pegging away ", as he com-
plained even in 1 509 in a
letter to Heller; he much
preferred "attending to
his engravmg^^

The prints which were
most on his mind when
he wrote those words were
the Passion series already

mentioned. He had al-
ready carried out part of
this task whilst he was
working at the Heller

altarpiece, as is proved by the dates i 508 and 1 509 on several of the prints.
The majority of the engravings which belonged to the series were completed
in 1^12, and in the following year he published the entire set, which
consisted of sixteen small prints. The Passion on copper begins with a
frontispiece representing the Man of Sorrows standing by the column of the
Flagellation, with streams of the redeeming blood pouring from his wounded
side on the heads of IMary and John , who stand here as representatives
of all redeemed mankind (Fig. 58). Then it relates the story of Christ's
suffering, death and victory over death in Httle prints of delicate execution,
the special character of which is a profound sympathy with the subject re-
presented— a subject well suited to the devoted and concentrated labour
of the engraver on copper. If the Little Passion on wood may be called
a popular narrative, the Passion cm copper may be compared to a series
of poems of deep emodon (Fig. 55, 56, 73, 74, 75). If you look at these
httle prints with a devotion similar to that which went to their production,
you will find in them a source of never-ending enjoyment.

Fig. 74. Christ descending into Hell (1512).
From the engraved Passion.

86

ALBRECHT DlJRER.

ffl^flf

The prints of the Pas-
sion on copper produced
in 1 5 12, a year in which
Diirer was able to give
himself up to this work
with more abundant lei-
sure, considerably surpass
in delicacy those which
were engraved earlier.
Generally speaking, it was
at this period that Diirer
made the most rapid and
important advances in
handling the burin. En-
graving was now de-
cidedly his favourite oc-
cupation , and constant
practice and the untiring
effort to attain something
fresh led him to extra-
ordinary success. Prints
like the splendid com-
position, engraved in i 5 1 3,
of the two lamenting
angels who hold up be-
fore the eyes of the whole
world the picture of the
Saviour, crowned with
thorns (Fig. 76), are so
beautiful also in respect of the technique that one would think a higher
degree of perfection in their manner of engraving hardly possible. And
yet Diirer went even further, while he sought in engraving the means
of giving current expression in perfect form to his innermost feelings. In
the jears 15 13 and 15 14 he produced the three prints which mark the
culminating point of German engraving, and belong, at the same time, to
Diirer's most finished works from a purely artistic point of view, as
utterances from the depths of the artist's soul , in which thought and form
are one. These are the three prints which at all periods have met with
unanimous admiration, "The Knight, Death and the Devil", "Melancholy"
and "St. Jerome in his Cell".

There is an old tradition which explains "The Knight, Death and the
Devil " with reference to a story told in Diirer's days about a knight
named Philip Rink. But the composition needs no explanation to interfere
with the direct and striking force of its poetical power and beauty. The
scene is a road through a wild ravine, with slippery ground. _A knight is

F'g> 75- The Entombment (1512), from the engraved Passion.

ALBRF.CHT Dl-RKR.

87

riding with his spear laid on his shoulder. It is evening; the clearness
of the atmosphere after sunset makes itself felt in the cloudless piece
of sky visible above the wall of rock and intersected by the irregular lines
of the bushes which grow out of the cliff; the waning light falls softly on
the castle which stands on the summit of a distant hill. In the awful gorge

itself it is cool and dark. An expiring ray of evening light which rests
on the cliff on one side, yields to the gathering darkness. The road grows
narrower every moment as it leads , between walls which rise higher and
higher, into the uncanny gloaming. Does it lead to destruction ? By the
sight of the knight rides a pale spectre, Death , and behind him shnks a
horrible Devil, raising its clawed hand to seize him, with a look of hideous
greed in its glowing eyes. The knight's horse and dog feel an alarming

88 ALBRECHT DtJRER.

presence, but he himself knows no fear; he rides forward, looking neither
to right nor to left, with a firm and unshaken bearing. Every German heart
will comprehend the knight who jjcrsists in spite of Death and the Devil
in the course on which he has entered (Fig. 1J7). Such a man of resolute
action is not tormented by the subtle doubts to which the fantastic print
of "Melancholy" makes allusion. Here is a seated figure w-hich personifies
the power of the human intellect, crowned with the laurel of fame, surrounded
by all kinds of symbols of human knowledge and power, such as tools
and figures of solid geometry. This mighty being may soar far away on
her stalwart pinions , yet at last she sinks exhausted in the consciousness
of her imperfection. She is like the child which sits on the millstone
doing sums and exercises on a tablet. She almost envies the brute which
has no yearning after knowledge to mar its slumber. The crucible of the
alchemist, by which the ultimate elements of things refuse to be revealed,
and the sphere, the content of which cannot be expressed in numbers,
are symbols of the limitation of the human spirit and counterparts of the
ladder leaning against the tower, in mockery of the tiny height above the
earth to which man is able to raise himself. Space and time set limits to
the human intellect. The hour-glass and the bell on the wall of the tower,
where a square frame of numbers tells of the aimless trifling of human
ingenuity, proclaim that time is fleeting and that its hours are numbered.
And over the vanishing horizon of the ocean the enigmatical apparition
of a comet gleams through the infinite space of the heavens, adorned with
the intangible shape of a rainbow. Conscious of her own nothingness in
the presence of the universe, the genius gazes before her, dejected, with
drooping pinions, and her hand rests idly on the book, in which the in-
comprehensible mystery is not told , and on the compasses with which
she cannot measure the unattainable (Fig. 79). The beholder may think,
perhaps , that the composition is overladen with far-fetched and scarceh'
intelligible allusions. But their interpretation in detail is not an indis-
pensable condition for the enjoyment of the print; the whole speaks
to us in a perfectly intelligible way by suggesting one thought — that
we can know nothing. Diirer has somewhere even written the confession :
"The falsehood is in our apprehension, and the darkness is so thick
within us that even our groping is a failure." There is a perfect contrast
to this in the type of a seeker after truth who finds complete satisfaction
in his work, exemplified in the person of St. Jerome. Altogether absorbed
in his work, the great father of the church sits in his comfortable
scholar's chamber; we feel the genial warmth which the sunlight brings
into the room, subdued as it is by the panes of bottle-glass in the
casement; the Saint's lion rests in peaceful slumber, with a little dog
beside it (Fig. 81). In these two prints Diirer is again German to the
core. One need possess no so-called understanding for art; it is enough
to have a German heart, to sympathize with the moods which they
evoke.

■^

Fig. 77. The Knight, Death and the Devil. Engraving of 1513.

90

ALBRECHT DtJRER.

The years in which
Diirer was bringing such
jewels of pertect imagina-
tive art from the inmost
treasure-chamber of his
heart , brought upon him
the greatest sorrow of his
Hfe, the illness and death
of his mother. He has
given a striking and ex-
plicit narrative of this in
a special memorandum.
The pious, gentle and bene-
volent woman died , after
an illness of more than a
year, on the i6'*'May 15 14.
A few weeks before her
death on "Oculi Sunday
Diirer had drawn her por-
trait of the size of life in
charcoal. The Print - Ca-
binet at Berlin now pos-
sesses this touching like-
ness ; an emaciated , fur-
rowed countenance with
an expression of patient re-
signation, beholding death
close at hand (Fig. 7<S .
Diirer certainly never threw
his heart more complete!}
into a piece of work than when he made this evidently rapid drawing. In
her ceaseless activity as a busy, careful housewife, his mother in former
days had very likelj- never found an hour to spare to sit to her son, who
now preserved the sad likeness of the invalid in her enforced leisure. It
may have been pain and grief to him to follow line by line the ravages
which imminent death had wrought on tlie beloved countenance, but he
spared himself no jot of the distressing task ; the relaxation of the muscles
of the eye, which causes the two pupils to diverge; the sinking-in of the
cartilage of the nose ; the dreadful emaciation which causes the bones and
the separate muscles of the neck to stand out with frightful distinctness
under the shrunken skin — nothing is passed over. Such is the love and
reverence which Diirer had for nature. If he had to copy anything actually
existing, simply for its own sake, he copied it exactly as it was. Hi-
fidelity and honesty were then so absolutely complete, that his realism
cannot be surpassed even by a hair's breadth by any of our modern artists.

Fig. 78. DcREr's IMOTHEK.

Charcoal-drawing of 1514. in the Royal Print-Cabinet, Berlin.

The note in Diirer's hand in the right-hand upper corner may be
translated: "1514 on Oculi Sunday (March 19th 1. This is Albrecht
Diirer's mother; she was 63 years of age." After her death he added
in ink: "And departed this life in the year 1514 on Tuesday before
Holy Cross Day iMay 16th) at two o'clock in the night."

ALBRECHT Dt^RER.

9'

1' 'g 79 ■ ^1 '■- '- A >■" i^" '^"

Diner's studies offer numerous instances of this. A speciall)' telling example
is the portrait, rapidly drawn with the pen, reproduced as Fig. 8o, a sketch
of a woman whose good-natured face, disfigured by an enlargement of the
right e\elid, ficcurs more than once among Diirer's drawings — probabh' a
person connected with the family.

By way of paintings, the year 15 14 has nothing to show but a head
of Christ, of doubtful genuineness, in the Kunsthalle at Bremen. To 1515
belongs a Virgin as ''Mater Dolorosa", supposed to be standing under the

92

ALBRECHT DtRER.

At ./

Fig. 80. Pen-drawing from life (1514).

probably representing Diirer's sister-in-law. Katharina Frey.

In the Royal Print-Cabinet, Berlin.

Cross, in the Pinako-
thek at Munich. Both
works are of minor
importance. Most of
Diirer's time was now-
taken up by commis-
sions given to him b\
the Emperor.

The Emperor Maxi-
miHan, who dehghted
in exalting his own
person, without being
vain for all that — a
trait in accordance with
the spirits of that age
and evidenced even in
Diirer's case by his
numerous portraits ot
himself — the Emperor
had himself conceived
the idea of a magni-
ficent series of design.s
for the glorification of
his own life. The whole
was to represent a
Triumph, and was to
consist of two parts,

the Triumphal Arch
or Gate of Honour, and the Triumphal Procession. The Emperor's friend
and faithful attendant, the historian, poet and mathematician Johannes
Stabius, undertook the planning of the work, and composed the inscriptions.
The Gate of Honour and the Triumphal Procession were each to appear
as a gigantic sheet of woodcuts, and Diirer received a commission to
prepare first of all the design of the Gate of Honour. In 1 5 1 5 he had
completed the great mass of pictures of which this curious structure i-
composed. He had been working at it for three years. Ninety-two wood-
blocks, the cutting of which was carried out by the Nuremberg wood-
engraver, Hieronymus Andrea, were required to make up the sheet, which,
when put together complete, is more than nine feet high and very nearly
as wide. The whole represents a building which bears a very distant
resemblance to a Roman triumphal arch, covered all over with scenes
from the Emperor's life (Fig. 82 — 85), historical and emblematic figures,
arms, ornament of all kinds, and inscriptions. In the place of his usual
monogram Durer has here introduced his family arms, the shield with
the open door.

ALBRECHT DCRER.

93

Fig. 81. St. Jerome in his cell. Engraving of 1514.

In this gigantic woodcut we cannot fail to be astonished at the vivacity
of Durei's imagination even under the restraint of precise and binding
directions, and at the way in which he always contrived to introduce
variety into the numerous representations of battles and sieges. It is not
so attractive, however, as another piece of work which he carried out in
1515 for the Emperor, and in which he was able to follow to his heart's
desire the suggestions of his fancy and the world of forms which filled it.
Maximilian had had a book of prayers printed for his personal use. In a

94

ALBRECHT Dt'RER.

copy of this book, which is now in the Royal Library at Munich, Diirc:
decorated forty-five leaves with marginal ornaments drawn with the pen.
The wealth of artistic invention here displayed baffles all description. Nov.
with immediate reference to the prayers, now digressing to follow up an
idea suggested by a clause or a single word , at times yielding apparentl\
to a suggestion of the merest caprice, the master has drawn on the wide
margins of the vellum leaves the most sublime and heavenly shapes, as
well as figures from life in jest and earnest ; fabulous monsters and beasts
of all kind, natural and fictitious, are introduced ; the most exquisite ornament
of wonderful twining plants shoots out and luxuriates in all directions ;
bold strokes of the pen compose curious marks or figures of animals, or
are entwined into symmetrical ornaments, or allowed to run riot in twists
and flourishes. The marginal drawings fit the rectangle of printed text
just as closely or loosely as their subjects do the words themselves ; in
one place they form a complete frame to it , in another they form a strip
of decoration on one side only ; or they enclose it on both sides, or, again,
they make a cluster in one corner only ; it is only in a few cases , at the
end of a section , that they are confined to a vignette at the foot of the

Fig. i

A single subject from the great sheet of wooticuts, "Triumphal Arch":
Thb Emperor Maximiuan and his Bride, Marv of Bi.*kgi;ndv.

ALBRECHT DURER.

95

Fig. 83. A single cut from the ''Triumphal Arch"
Troops entering a town after a siege.

page. Their charm is inexhaustible and every page has an effect ot its
own to suggest. The first of the pages decorated by Diirer displays, as
the accompaniment of a prayer which contains a confident committal to
the divine protection, a bright and cheerful ornament of roses among which
animals are playing, whilst in the upper branches there sits a man blowing
a pipe and expressing in his attitude and countenance a mood of absolute
contentment. Then there are prayers in which St. Barbara, St. Sebastian and
St. George are mentioned and the figures of these Saints are introduced
beside them : Barbara as a lovely young princess , standing on a flower ;
Sebastian , pierced by arrows , bound to a tree, under the roots of which
the evil serpent hisses in impotent rage and lashes its tail ; George, a fine
knight in armour, standing inflexible as iron with uplifted spear in his right
hand , while his left hand closes on the neck of the vanquished dragon,
which he holds up as if it were the spoils of the chase. Further on , the
ornament accompanying a prayer which speaks of the fragility of man

96

ALBRECHT DURER.

poftcaquam ecru ct n liam (l6cril(Tct.a^u^•^ue^ ^rd'. '
ciarcf^cmnwturc Dobitoconfilio wactrptamabillo
R tamolmitniunam qiuwDixiuciMnraTctur frnrn^
tumC»iint acmca illi frpct)Uicncmanijnampa:tnn
rc^ii 6c(lica vtrtiuc, atdnit.

Fig. 84. A single cut from the 'Triumphal Arch":
The Emperor Maxi.miuan receiving the Submission of a besieged City.

contains the humorous figure of a physician who gazes through his spectacles
with a self-important air at the glass in which he is diagnosing his patient's
malady; beneath him sits a hare, and over him hangs a thrush caught in
a springe. For a prayer which speaks of the conversion of bread and wine
into Christ's Body and Blood, Diirer has drawn the Saviour as the bleeding
Man of Sorrows. On the occasion of a prayer to be said in the agony
of death, he has drawn a subject of the Dance of Death; Death, not in
the form of a wild man as in the engraving of 1 503, nor a strange, weird
phantom as in the famous print of 1 5 13, but represented as a corpse
shrunken almost to a skeleton , advances with his hour-glass to meet a
warrior in gorgeous attire, who tries in vain to draw his sword against the
apparition; a thunder-cloud and a heron struck by a falcon are seen over-

ALBRECHT DURER.

97

'" ^^ fono ^lIrti^^n ^falinm (opij^65?cbtoIatutm in po^
tcftafcm l•e^u;uicc(al•atoqj illicSucc pcrpctuo ilium
t'ftticcpe in ^oll^um ^npcno (onccffit O.iiob bonce
factum eft/ l)oftC6 uifticiae cavtje' affli.cu clalMaue?.

Fig. 85. A single cut from the "Triumphal Arch"
The Investiture of the Duke of Milan.

head. The prayer for benefactors has suggested to the master two emblems
of beneficence, the peHcan which tears open its own bosom to feed its
young, and a well-dressed man who gives alms to a half-naked beggar.
Beside the prayer for the departed, he draws an angel carrying a soul out
of the flames of purgatory into the glory of God , while little angels send
a refreshing blast on those who have yet further penance to endure ; there
is a companion picture of the Evil One who is seizing souls for torment;
at the foot there shoots out of the flames a scheme of lines which shapes
itself into a dragon which catches a fluttering butterfly with its long tongue.
Then follows in the text the 129''' (130"") Psalm, and here King David is

Knackfuss, Albrecht Diirer. 7

98

ALBRECHT Dt'RER.

kneeling with his liarp before the Father in Heaven. After the Psahii
follow the opening verses of St. John's Gospel. Here the Evangelist is
represented sitting in the wilderness with his writing materials about him
and gazing up at the radiant vision of the Queen of Heaven with the Infant
Christ. After the 50''' (51^') Psalm has been accompanied by designs in
which ornament predominates, there is an invocation of the Holy Trinit\
with a picture of the Triune God ; a troop of Cherubim hovers above, and,
below, the stem of the cross, on which God the Son is displayed, is trans-
formed into a vine bearing grapes. Along with the meditations on various
Saints, which follow next, we see St. George as a knight on horseback in
full armour, setting the shaft of his spear, the banner with the sign of the
cross waving from it, on the dragon which lies beaten unter the horse's
hoofs; then St. Apollonia, the Apostles Matthias and Andrew and St. Maxi-
milian, all these with the addition of other small decorative pictures which
serve to fill the space, some of which contain very remarkable drawings
of animals. Then there follows a splendid composition for the 56''' (57 'J") Psalm,
superscribed with the words "Against the mighty". Christ stands in the
cloud with the orb in his left hand , and his right hand raised to bless ;
the words: "He shall send from heaven and save me" are represented by
the Archangel IMichael swooping down and overthrowing Satan; "and giveth
over unto shame my oppressors" by a King on a Triumphal car drawn by
a goat, led by the beard by a child riding on a hobby-horse. There the
artist has not omitted a political allusion which characterizes the oppressor
more precisely; the king has the crescent instead of the cross upon his
orb. With the two succeeding psalms , which bear the common heading,
"To be said when a war is to be begun", — they are the 90''' (91^') and
the 34'*' (35''') Psalms — there is a furious combat represented in each case
below, whilst above, on the side margin, an angel hovers praying in heavenly
peace. On the next page decorated b\- Diirer occur the words "As the
Jews fell in terror to the earth". Here the artist illustrates the verse of
St. John's Gospel, "As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they
went backward and fell to the ground". And since in representing the
Betrayal his thoughts pass to the whole Passion of Christ, he draws also
at the side the Virgin as Mater Dolorosa. Further on, the word " temptation "
occuring in a prayer gives the draughtsman his subject for the border of the
page in question: a soldier walking through a tangle of vegetation listens,
half suspiciously, half eagerly, to the note of a strange bird , and the fox
of the fable decoys the poultry by playing the flute. With the prayers in
honour of the Virgin, the Annunciation is spread over two opposite pages;
the wrath of the Devil, who curses with a loud voice and angry gestures,
is contrasted with the joy of the angels who are planting a tree. Then
by the side of a hymn we see a knight galoping along, pursued by Death
with his scythe and menaced by a demon which drops from the foliage.
With the S'*" Psalm go shepherds making music, and birds rejoicing on
flowery sprays accompany the words: "O Lord, our governour, how excellent

ALBRECHI- Dl'REH.

99

€^KP%^

^^W^m^a^

^t mm <jciAtm

fp»liH6mmon(et»onfeim

U$xt quattplaufqtto rofe in

ipctiol

4iB ftt)tmtm]B«aaua6mt)latcig

♦guaiifc

f

Fig. 86. A Page from the Emperor Maximilian's Pkayek-uook, with Durer's drawings in the margin (1515)-

In the Royal Library, Munich.

is thy name in all the world!", whilst a lion devoting his whole attention
to a buzzing insect, under the eyes ol" a hermit, betokens the subjection
of the brutes to man. But what can have induced the draughtsman to
draw Hercules in his combat with the Stymphalian birds on the margin

7*

lOO

ALBRECHT DURER.

Fig. 87. St. Philip. Tempera painting, 1516. L'lhzi Gallerj-, Florence.
(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)

of the iS'*" (19''') Psalm.? Perhaps only the words ''Delighted as a giant".
More easy to explain are the motives of the next illustrations to the Psalms.
The 23''' (24''') Psalm has an Indian warrior, suggested to the artist's imagi-
nation by the words, "The compass of the world, and they that dwell
therein", which made him think of the countries beyond the ocean which
were but lately still unknown. An oriental with a camel, belonging to the
44'"' (45''') Psalm, may have arisen from the thought of "the rich among
the people" offering their gifts. A column, a child-angel with fruit, a dog
at play, birds in the branches , a man sleeping comfortably — all these are
woven together into a design suggestive of security and peace which
frames in the words of the 45"' (46*) Psalm: "Therefore will we not fear,
though the earth be moved." After a page decorated merely with fanciful
designs , there follow two pictures which symbolize the contrast between
strength and weakness, though it is difficult to find precise places to which
they refer in the text of the psalms which they enclose; on one page is
Hercules, with a drunken man lying on the ground; on another is a soldier
in armour, with an old woman who has gone to sleep over her work.

ALBRF.CHT DURER.

lOI

Fig. as, St. J.\.m[-:s the greater. Tempera painting, 1516. UlTizi Gallery, Florenc
(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)

There is a delightful drawing for the 97''' (98''') Psalm: "O sing unto the
Lord a new song." A whole band has assembled to make solemn music
on the meadow outside the town, and there is an. echo of their joyous
mood in the curves of the rising foliage which sprouts from the trunks
of trees which grow on the meadow. In the text there now follows another
set of prayers of various kinds. On the Virgin ^lary being mentioned,
Diirer has drawn her on the margin in quite a youthful shape, folding her
hands for prayer in childlike piety; over her head an angel holds the
crown of heaven and at her feet an enchanting little angel sings to the
accompaniment of the lute. In contrast to this symbol of pure religious
bliss, there appears on the next page worldly folly in the shape of a woman
laden with her purchases in the market, who steps with both feet into a
vessel full of eggs, while a goose flaps its wings on her head. In the next
design a similar contrast of effect is arrived at by the juxtaposition of a
Silenus tippling under a vine, with a faun playing to him on the Pan's
pipes, and an angel praying in the clouds. Then there follows another
page which contains nothing but ornament (Fig. 86). Then comes a very

lo:

ALBRIXHT DUKER.

Fig. 89.

PuKiKAiT OF Michael Wolgemut. Ctil-painting, 151U.
In the Pinakothek, Munich.

The inscription in the upper right-hand corner may be translated: '"Albreclit Durer took

this likeness of his master, Michael Wolgemut, in the year J516, and he was 82 years

of age, and lived till the year 1519, and then departed on Saint Andrew's Day, very

early before sunrise,"

(From a photograph by Franz Hanfstangl, Munich.)

beautiful design at the beginning of tlie Te Deum. On one side stands
St. Ambrose, as author of the hymn , a bishop of dignified figure ; while,
below, the child Christ rides over the earth , with an angel to prepare his
way. The next design shows an angel fervently uttering the prayer,
"O Lord make haste to help me", for a knight in armour who is assailing
a fierce warrior who meets his attack with a halberd. The knight cannot
but remind one of the Emperor Maximilian himself, who doubtless super-
intended in person the entire arrangement of the prayers. The following
page, on which Psalms begin again , has a magnificent head of Christ on
the napkin of St. Veronica. On the next page Diirer's marginal drawings
conclude with a picture full of joy and gladness in every line, with couples
dancing to the sound of the piiie, translating into form the opening words
of the 99*'' (100''') Psalm, "O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands; serve
the Lord with gladness." — All this variety of subjects strikes the eye of
the beholder as a series of improvisations, full of wit, tact and taste, set
down on the inspiration of the moment. The light play of the artist's hand
has made a masterly work of every page. If we are justified in comparing

ALBRECHT DCRER.

103

Fig. 90. Design for a touid (drawn for Peter Vischer). Pen-drawing of 1517.
In the Uffizi Collection, Florence.

Diirci s All Saints' Altarpiece to Raphael's Disputa, we have quite as much
right to call the marginal drawings in the Emperor's prayer-book the
German counterpart of the Loggie of the Vatican. Their figure-subjects
contain an inexhaustible store of artistic beauty. Their ornament is com-
pletely free and original, just as independent of late Gothic decoration as it
is of that of the contemporary Italian Renaissance. The purity of the fine,
curving lines reveals a lightness and certainty of hand which almost pass
comprehension. We are reminded of the old story of Apelles, who never let
a day pass without some practice in drawing lines — "nulla dies sine linea".
Diirer is said to have been so accomplished a draughtsman as to have been
able to draw a circle with a line as fine as a hair without the least departure
from mathematical accuracy. Nobody who has seen the marginal drawings in
the Emperor Maximilian's prayer-book need doubt that this was a fact.

I04

ALBRFXHT DtJRER.

lig. 91. LvcRKTiA. (.)il-painting ol 151a in the pin.ikothek. Munich.
(From a photograph by Franz Hanfstangl, Munich.)

In 1 5 16 Diirer
once more carried
out some pictures.
These are all of
small size, partly por-
traits, partly pictures
of saints. One of
the portraits is that
of Diirer's master,
Wolgemut. The ve-
nerable painter, who
.still looks vigorous
enough in spite ot
his advanced age,
and whose keen eyes
have kept the bright-
ness of youth , is
presented to us so
vividly that his whole
personalit>' seems to
be conveyed in the
portrait (Fig. 89).
Wolgemut had never
been a great artist,
but an estimable
painter who produc-
ed aharpieces rich
in colour, sound in
composition and di-
ligent in execution.
Diirer had received
from him thoroughly
good instruction in
the mechanical part
of his art, and pre-
served a grateful
respect for him.

Whilst in this
picture Diirer's rea-
listic art appears in
all its fulness, a
small picture of the
Virgin in the Augs-
burg Galler}' — called
the "Madonna with

Fig. 93. The Virgin and two angels. Engraving, 1518.

Fig. 94. The Virgin and Child surkocndeu bv angels. Woodcut, 151S.

io8

ALBRFXHT DURER.

the carnation" — consisting of little more than tlie heads of the Virgin and
the Infant Jesus, shows an attempt at idealisation which is rare with Diirer.
It may be that a special wish on the part of his patron led him to approxi-
mate to the tradition of the old style of art; he has even painted a nimbus
round each of the heads, quite against his habit. But the unnatural narrowing
of the nose and reduction of the size of the mouth strike one as strange
and out of place in a work of Dijrer's. Yet in the expression of soul, in
the infinite kindness of this virgin mother, the picture is quite worthy
of the great master.

The two pictures oi apostles in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence may
also, perhaps, be described as ideal heads. But in these splendid old men's
heads, which represent Philip and James, two emissaries who had travelled
far in the service of the faith, the ideal is not sought for by any supposed
ennobling of the form , but developed out of the inmost being of the two

M

Fig. 95. Sketch for the Impeki.\l Ch.\riot in the "Triumphal Procession of ilaximilian ''.
Pen-drawing in the Albertina, Vienna.

(From a photograph by Braun, Clement and Co., Dornach and Paris.)

personalities ; to produce pictures of character was the task which Diirer
had set himself (Fig. 87 and 88).

In 1 5 17 Diirer seems again to have put painting quite on one side.
At least , this date is not to be found on any of his pictures. In the
following year he once more made an attempt to paint an undraped figure
of the size of life. He went back to a sketch which he had drawn ten
years before, and took the motive from Roman history, in which every
educated man took an interest at the time of the Renaissance. He painted
Lucretia, leaning against her bed, standing, in the very act of thrusting
the dagger into her side (Fig. 91). This picture is important as evidence
of Diirer's unremitting labour for his own improvement. For it can hardly
be supposed that he had any other motive for painting this picture than
the intention of getting practice in overcoming the difficulties of painting
the nude human figure. However, he has not succeeded nearly so well in
overcoming the difficulties as he did in the earlier pictures of Adam and
Eve, to which the Lucretia is inferior in respect of painting and colour,

ALBRECHT DURF.R.

109

Fig. 96. The Emperor Maximilian. Charcoal ilrawing from the life.
In the Albertina, Vienna.

Note; *"This is the Emperor Ma.xiniilian, whose likeness I, Albrecht Dijrer,

have taken, at Augsburg high up in the palace in his little chamber, in the

year of Grace 1518 on ^[onday after St. John the Baptist's Day."

no lessj than in expression. For all that , both the finished modelHng ot
the form , which gives complete roundness to the body, and the beauty
of the limbs themselves, deserve recognition.

In his favourite art, that of engraving. Diner was always busy with
fresh efforts. To reach a greater perfection than he had attained in the
masterpieces of 1513 and I5I4/^^'3S impossible to him within the limits
of the method of production which he practised. Now, however, he be-
thought himself of a new technical process which was to procure him the
means of multiplying his ideas more easily and with more freshness than
the labour of engraving on the plate with the burin would permit. Ex-
periments made still earlier, from about 1 510 onwards, with the "dry-point",
a sharp instrument which scratches quite delicate lines upon the copper,
had not led to any satisfactory result. The chief print of this kind is the
"St. Jerome with the willow" of 1512. It is only the very limited number
of quite early impressions that can convey any idea of the extraordinary-
charm and picturesque eftect which Diirer aimed at and achieved by
drawing with the dr\-point as if with an extremely fine pen. In these
first impressions the wonderful feeling of the print is fully realised, a feeling

no

ALBRECHT DtRZR.

Fig. 97. Woodcut portrait of the Empekor Maximilian, 1519.

of the deepest solitude, of seclusion from the outer world and from the
great city, of which a narrow cleft in the rock gives the merest glimpse
in the distance, a feeling of being alone with God , in whom the Father
of the Church is absorbed , as he sits in this remote, rocky nook , where
only some meagre grass and a stunted willow-tree find scanty nourishment
(Fig. 72). The later impressions are so worn and dull as to convey no
idea at all of this feeling and of the vigour of the drawing. After his

ALHRKCIIT Di'REU.

I I I

Fig. 90. The Empekor Maximilian. Oil-painting of 1519, in the linperLiI Galiery. \'ieiina.
(From a photograph by J. Lbwy, Vienna.)

imperfect success with the dr)'-point, Diirer took to etching, of which he
may almost be regarded as the inventor, at least in the sense of making
an artistic use of the process. Instead of engraving the design with the
burin on the polished metal plate, he scratched it with the needle or
etching-point on a ground laid upon the plate, and then etched it into the
plate itself with acid, which could not act upon the material of the ground,
and therefore attacked the metal only where it was exposed by the lines
and dots of the design. Since copper presented difficulties with the process

112

ALBRECHT Dt-RER.

of etching known to Diirer, he employed plates of iron for this purpose.
Diircr's etchings all belong, apparently, to the years 1 5 14 to 1 518. At a
later time he returned to the burin as the instrument which ga\'e him the
most satisfaction. The most celebrated of Diirer's etchings is " the Great
Cannon", the view of a piece of ordnance belonging to Nuremberg,
mounted on a hill which commands a wide landscape, under the care of a
gunner and guarded by a set of sturdy landsknechts, while a group of Turks
look on with an expression of anything but approval. The print was
directed against the prevailing dread of the Turks (Fig. 92).

A delightful line-engraving of the same year as the etching 01 the
Great Cannon, 15 18, is the lovely print of the Madonna, in which two

/

^imm^m

.■■„ - [. -"'i^i

Fig. 99. St. Antony. Engraving, 151'

flying angels hold a rich crown over the Virgin's head, while she sits in quiet
motherly happiness, and looks away past the child to the spectator, with a
serious expression in her face. In the landscape background an extremely
commonplace motive is introduced , a simple fence ; but with what an
exquisite beauty do the lines of this landscape, the distant part of which is
seen through the posts of the fence, harmonize with the whole design (Fig. 93).

Diirer continued to publish single woodcuts, in which there was much
fine work. What an enchanting tone of childlike, hearty feeling he gave
to the delightful poem in honour of the Virgin which he drew on wood
in the year 1 5 18! (Fig. 94).

Paintings , etchings , broadsides and woodcuts were simply works of
minor importance during this year. Diirer's time and energy were fully

ALliKECHT DURER.

113

occupied by the task which the Emperor set him to perform. It is true
that several other painters besides Diirer were employed on the designs
for the hu£,'e woodcut of the Triumphal Procession, which was planned on
a still more extensive scale than the Triumphal Arch and required , in
consequence, a still greater number of blocks. But Diirer 's share was quite
considerable enough. It was his business to prepare the most important

Fig. 100. i'OKTKAIT OF FliLIX HrNGERSPEKG, CaPTAIN OF THE IMPERIAL FORCE-S.

A leaf from Dijrer's Sketch-book, in the Albertina, Vienna.
"This is Captain Felix the tieliKhtfiil lute-pIayer. Done at Antwerp, 1520."

sections of the long series of pictures, composed of all sorts of groups
on foot, on horseback and on cars, for which the Emperor himself had
furnished the most precise directions. Amongst other things, Diirer carried
out the section which represented the wars of Maximilian. Here, according
to the Emperor's original draft, landsknechts were to march along in the
procession, carrying boards with pictures of the various wars. This appeared
to the master too monotonous, and he followed his own taste in inventing

Knackfuss, Albrecht Diirer. §

114

ALBRECHT DURER.

TZT

■r^m

'■■■/

'■"^^^^•

'[':

ingenious pieces of mecha-
nism , moving stages hand-
somely' decorated, on which
the representations of battles,
fortresses and the like are
given , either in the form
of pictures or of groups of
sculpture. An especially
splendid composition was
the car on which the Mar-
riage of Maximilian to Mary
of Burgundy was shown.
The great Triumphal chariot
on which the Emperor and
his whole family appeared
was to form the central
feature of the long pro-
cession. The first design
sketched by Diirer for this
chariot is preserved in a
pen-drawing which belongs
to the Albertina at Vienna
(Fig. 95 ). But Diirer's friend
Wilibald Pirkheimer , who
felt himself called upon to
take part in working out the
subject matter of the Trium-
phal Procession, thought this
design inadequate , for he
wanted all the Emperor's
virtues, personified, to be
visible upon the car or by
its side. Pirkheimer ac-
cordingly sent to the Emperor in March, 1 518, a new detailed design on
this plan. Meanwhile, before this important part of the woodcut was en-
graved , the whole undertaking was suddenly checked by the death of
Maximilian on la'*' January, 1519. Before this happened, Diirer had had
the privilege of taking a portrait from life of his imperial master and
well-wisher. Diirer was present with the representatives of the town
of Nuremberg at the diet convoked by Maximilian at Augsburg in 1 5 18.
On the 28''' June the Emperor sat to him "in his little room at the
top of the Palace". Here it was that he produced, evidently in a very
short time, the fine charcoal drawing in the Albertina which has handed
down to posterity such a speaking likeness of the last of the knights
(Fig. 96).

loi. Cu^iLME, dra-wiu;^ I'r'jin [he Netherlands Sk',[^h

(Note, "a citizen's wife".)

In the Ambrosiana Library at Milan.

(From a photograph by Braun, Clement and Co.,
Dornach and Paris.)

5 *•

8*

ii6

ALBRECHT DURER.

Fig. 103. Christ be.\ring the Cross. Drawing of 1520. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Fig. 104. The Entombment. Drawing of 1521. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

ALBRECHT DtTRER.

117

Pig, 105. DukfcK's wnK, drawn in 1521 on llle Netherlands juiiinc^.

'This is a lil^eness which Albrecht Durer drew of his wife at Antweri) in the Netherlands

dress in the year 1521, when they had been man and wife XXV'II years."

Print Cabinet, Berlin.

From this drawing Diirer published the Emperor's likeness on the same
scale, rather less than the size of life, in two large woodcuts. One print
gives the bust without any accessories except a scroll on which the name
and title of the Emperor are inscribed. The other, which appeared after
the Emperor's death , shows the bust in a rich frame with ornamental
columns, on which stand two griffins as supporters of the imperial arms and
of the insignia of the Golden Fleece (Fig. 97). Then Diirer further used
the same drawing for the purposes of two painted portraits. One of these,
painted in water-colour on canvas and greatly impaired by the lapse of time,
is in the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg, the other, carried out in oils.

in

AI.HKKCHT DVRKR.

is in the Vienna Gal-
lery. In the first the
Emperor is represent-
ed in a mantle with
white fur, with the
collar of the Golden
Fleece, in the second
he wears a plain cos-
tume. In each case he
holds a pomegranate
in his hand, in allusion
to a symbolical mean-
ing which the Emperor
connected with this
fruit. From the in-
scriptions which Diirer
put upon the Em-
peror's portraits it may
be felt how profound-
ly the latter's decease
affected him.

At the Diet of
Augsburg Diirer also
took the portrait of
Cardinal Albert of Bran-
denburg, Primate and
Elector of the Empire,
Archbishop of Mainz
and Magdeburg. The
original likeness in
charcoal of the prince
of the church, then only twenty-eight years of age, is also in the Albertina
collection. In the following year Diirer carried out the portrait as an
engraving, the cardinal being a well-known and popular personage, whose
likeness many people would like to possess. This splendid print was the
first of Diirer's series of engraved portraits. From this time onwards
portrait-painting was in fact his foremost occupation. It seems as if the
master had directed the whole accumulated force of his years of maturity
to the one goal , of penetrating the expression of character in the human
face. Among works of a different kind which proceeded from his never
resting hand, one of the productions of the year 1 5 19 is remarkable: the
small , delicate engraving with a delightful view of a fortified town , which
reminds one of the " Burg" at Nuremberg, and, in the foreground, St. Anthony
the Hermit; the town, standing out in varied outlines from the cloudless
sky, harmonises in a curious, romantic way with the figure ot the hermit,

Fig. 106. A study drawn at Antwerp i:-i
The Negress of the Portugese Consul Branua.n.

In the Uffizi Collection, Florence.

Fig. 107. Portrait, supposed to be that of the Nuremberg patrician Hans Imhof the Elder.

Oil-painting of 1531. In the Prado Galleo'i Madrid.

(From a photograph by Braun, Clement and Co., Dornach and Paris.)

I20 ALBRECHT DURER.

completely absorbed in his devotion , who has planted his staff with the
double cross in the ground beside him (Fig. 99).

In the summer of 1520 Diirer entered on a journey to the Netherlands
which extended over more than a year. The motive for this enterprise
was, no doubt, his desire to meet Maximilian's successor, Charles V., who
was to land shortly at Antwerp. For, in consequence of the death of
Maximilian , the continuance of a pension of one hundred florins a year,
which that sovereign had bestowed upon him, was rendered doubtful. The
town-council of Nuremberg refused to pay a charge of two hundred florins
upon the taxes of the city, assigned to him by the Emperor, in spite
of the imperial receipt already drawn up in due form, and in spite of every
effort on Diirer's part. In this state of affairs he hoped for assistance from
the new Emperor, if he could succeed in gaining personal access to him
and securing his good will. Another motive, we may be sure, was his
desire to become acquainted at first hand with the art of the Netherlands.

Diirer set out on the 12''' July, accompanied by his wife and a maid.
On the a""* August he reached Antwerp. Towards the end of the month
he betook himself to Brussels , to be introduced to the Governor of the
Netherlands , the Emperor Maximilian's daughter Margaret , in order that
the latter might interest herself in securing the favour of her nephew, the
young Emperor. On his return to Antwerp, he assisted at the brilliant
entry of Charles V. Then, in order to find an opportunity of presenting
his petition to the Emperor, he followed the latter on his progress to
Aix-la-Chapelle for the coronation , and on to Cologne. Here he obtained
on the 1 2''' November the Emperor's formal confirmation of the continuance
of his yearly pension. He was obliged, however, to relinquish the payment
of Maximilian's debt to him , which had been charged upon the taxes
of the city of Nuremberg. He returned to Antwerp by way of Nymwegen
and Bois-le-Duc. From Antwerp he made an excursion in December to
Zeeland; in the spring of 1 52 1 he visited Bruges and Ghent, and in June
Malines. In July he started on his return journey.

The master preserved his impressions on this journey in a small sketch-
book, many leaves of which are still preserved in various collections, and
in a detailed diary. Diirer's journal is an invaluable legacy, not only on
account of the artist's personality, but also for the light which it throws
on the life of the period.

The master took with him a large stock of works of art, that is to
say of woodcuts and engravings. We learn from his notes how, immediately
after starting his journey, he gained the goodwill of the Bishop of Bamberg
by presenting him with a painting of the Virgin , two of his large series
of woodcuts, and several engravings; how the Bishop, thereupon, had him
entertained at the inn as his own guest, and gave him three letters of
introduction and an exemption from paying duty, which was to prove very
useful to him in the course of his journey. At Frankfort he had wine
sent to his inn as a present from Jakob Heller. At many other places

Fig. io8. Studv of an old man's head.

Brush drawing on paper with a dark ground, heightened with white.

Urawn on the journey in the Netherlands, 1521. In the Albertina, Vienna.

Durer'a note near the upper margin is as follows:
"The man was 03 years of age and still healthy and vigorous, at Antwerp."

Ai,r.i<i;cnT durer.

121

besides he found acquaintances and admirers, who made a point of showing
him friendly attentions. From Frankfort the journey was continued by
boat. On the Rhine boat Dame Agnes did her own cooking. Diirer's
name was so universally known , that at Boppard the very customs officer
let him pass free of toll , although the Bishop of Bamberg's letter of
exemption no longer carried any weight. From Cologne the journey was
continued by piost-chaisc along the shortest route to Antwerp. At Antwerp
Diirer was invited on the very evening of his arrival to an exquisite dinner
by the representative of the Augsburg firm of Fugger. On the following

Fig. 109. Thk KMi'tKOK JIaximilian on Titfc: iKiLMfHAL L AK , cfowned by the figures of the Virtues,
A section (much reduced) of tlie large woodcut "Maximilian's Triumphal Chariot" (1522).

Sunday the Antwerp painters gave him a splendid entertainment, at which
he was treated with as much honour as a prince, while the town-council
of Antwerp sent him a welcome-cup. He visited a day or two after his
arrival the painter Ouentin Massys and also the learned Erasmus of Rotterdam.
In all circles he experienced the greatest kindness , and several wealthy
merchants of various nationalities took a special liking to him. He visited
the stately buildings of Antwerp and admired the magnificent preparations
which were being made for the triumphal entry of the new Emperor. A
spectacle which enchanted him was the great procession on the Sunday
after the Assumption , with its gorgeous array of cars and boats with
living pictures, its riders and varied groups, which Diirer attempted to

122

ALI'.KI-XHT in'KHR.

.5^

<<v?

^V-2

1 i^. ij... Mu.Ku. . ..a:., , J;>ii\a with the pen on the back of a letter

*'l523, on the day after St. Andrew's Day at Nuremberg". Basle Museum.
(From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Dornach and Paris.)

describe, but broke off with the remark that he would never be able to
write it all down if he gave a whole book to it. At Brussels, where he
was most affably received by the Stadtholder, he w'as astonished at the costly
marvels which had been sent for the Emperor from the new Eldorado across
the ocean, and his heart rejoiced at the "subtle devices of men in foreign
parts". He admired the splendid old tow^n-hall, and the works of the great
painters of the preceding century. Here, too, he had friendly intercourse with
his living fellow-artists. The painter Bernard van Orley gave a banquet to
him and some distinguished gentlemen of the court, the costliness of which
astonished the German artist. At the entry of Charles V. into Antwerp
the painter's eye was delighted by the Emperor's reception "with shows,
great rejoicings and a display of fair maidens". He was present at the

ALBRE( 111 IJLKKR.

i::3

M p . ^ X ' ,111
SiCOcvroT 5!C iLLEGENASSIC-OR.A-FEREBAY-
iSjjSVEOCJCXflU

Fig. III. Engraved Portrait of Cardin.jvl Albrecht of Brandenburg ("the great Cardinal").

"1523. So were his eyes, his cheeks, and so his mouth".

In the thirty-fourth year of his age.

■* Albrecht by the Mercy of God Cardinal Priest of the Most Holy Roman Church with

the Title of Saint Chrysogoniis, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, Elector, Primate

of the Empire, Administrator of Halberstadt, Marquis of Brandenburg."

coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle, and admired "all the costly splendour, the
like whereof no man living hath beheld for magnificence". On the journey
from Aix-la-Chapelle to Cologne he was the guest of the envoys from
Nuremberg, who had conveyed the imperial insignia to Aix for the coro-
nation. At Cologne he attended the brilliant entertainment got up by the
city in honour of Charles V., and saw the young emperor dancing at the
Giirzenich. Diirer, however, did not omit the remark that it had cost him
"great labour and trouble" to obtain the emperor's consent to his petition.
Among the sights of Cologne he mentions especially the picture by JMeister
Stephan in the Cathedral, spending two "white pfennigs" to get it opened.
Diirer undertook the journey to Zeeland in the winter merely for the
sake of seeing a stranded whale; notwithstanding, he did not miss the

124

•CHRISTO • 5ACRVA\ •

I LLe-I)E) \-ERB0 ATAGKA. PJETAIE- FAVEBAT -
•PERPETVADiGMVSPOSTERITATECOLl-

DFRIDR- DVci • SAXON • S R- iTAP
• ARCH lAv- ELECTOR! •

• AlB£RTVSdVi;xrNvR- FACIEBAT •

• BA\- F -V • Y •
■ JV^ ■ D - XXIIII

'^ ^^|'''^^^^^WC'^^^^^''^'T^*'V^^'^^**1^^ '^^

Fig. 112. Engkaved portrait of the Elector Frederick the Wise.
Inscription: "Dedicated to Christ. — This Prince was a pious protector of God's Word, and worthy
to be remembered of posterity for ever. - For Frederick, Dulce of Sa.xony, Grand Marshal, Elector
of the Holy Roman Empire, done by Albrecht DUrer of Nuremberg. — B-M.F-V-V. (these letters have

not been explained). 1524."

ALBRECHT DURER.

125

V '^

^iitf^Sui^

B ILIBALDiPIRKEYMHERJEFFiGiES

, ■ AETATIS • WAE- ANNO • L ■ i i I •
VIVIT^'R• LXGEXi O ■ CAETERA-A\ORTIS
•ERVKT-

A\ ■ D • X :x: • i V ^

Fig. 113. Portrait of Wiubald Pirkheimfr at the age of 53. Engraving of 1534-

opportunity of looking up works of art. On this journey there was an
occasion when his life was in danger. He gives a very graphic occount
of the occurrence, relating how at Arnemuiden the boat in which he had
arrived was driven away from the landing-stage by a large ship just at
the moment when the crew and the majority of the passengers had already
left it , while he and a fellow-traveller, two old women , a small boy and
the captain of the boat were still on board; how the boat thereupon was
driven out to sea by a strong wind , and there was a general panic ; how
he then exhorted the captain not to lose trust in God, and how the whole
party managed with their unpracticed hands to rig up a sail sufficiently
high for the captain to be able to control the course of the boat to a
certain extent, so that it succeeded in reaching land again with the help

126

ALBRECHT DUKEK.

of boats which rowed up to its assistance. During the quiet stay of several
months at Antwerp, which now ensued, Diirer led a sociable but busy life.
At the Carnival he and his wife attended several festivities, and at the
beginning of May he was present at the marriage of the "good landscape-
painter" Joachim Patenier, at which two plays, the first "very devout and
spiritual", were produced. The journey to Bruges and Ghent was solely
for the enjoyment of art; the paintings of Van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden,
Hugo van der Goes and Hans Memling were sufficiently appreciated,

ShE^'. -

V'

Di^

Fig. 114. The Adoration of the Magi. Pen-drawing, 1524. In the Albertina, Vienna.
(From a photograph by Braun, Clement & Co., Domach and Paris.)

Jtt.

especially the "exceeding precious and skilful painting" of the altarpiece
at Ghent; he also went to see the marble statue of the Virgin by Michel-
angelo at Bruges. In both cities the artists got up banquets in Diirer's
honour. He was similarly feted afterwards at Malines, whither he went
mainly with the object of another interview with the Archduchess Margaret;
he was very kindly received by the princess, but a portrait of the Emperor
which he had drawn for her did not meet with her approval. After his
return to Antwerp he made a very interesting acquaintance, that of the
Dutch painter Lucas van Leyden, who competed with him as an engraver.
At the end of his residence at Antwerp another great honour was shown

Fig. 115. PoRTKAn OF Jakob Mifffj., coi'ncillor of Ni-kemukkg.
Oil-painting of 1526 in the Royal Museum, Berlin.

(From a photograph by Franz HanfstangI, Munich.)

128 ALBRECHT IjORER.

him. King Christian II. of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, who had been
expelled from his kingdom and was seeking the help of the Emperor, his
brother-in-law, sent for Dijrer to have his portrait taken by him. Diirer
remarks that the king was an object of admiration to the people of Antwerp
as a handsome and spirited man. He drew his likeness in charcoal, dined
with His Majesty, and accompanied him to Brussels, where the king was
received in state by the Emperor and the Archduchess Margaret. After
that , King Christian gave a banquet on his own account to the Emperor
and the Archduchess, and Diirer was invited as a guest among the company
at the function. During the course of the festivities he borrowed some
colours and painted the king's likeness in oils.

Much space is occupied in the diar}' by the enumeration of the gifts
of w-orks of art which Diirer dispensed in all directions, whether in return
for something that he had received, or, in the case of persons of eminence,
with the object of gaining their goodwill. He remarks in his notes, not
without some bitterness of feeling, that " Lady Margaret ", the Stadtholder,
had given him no present in return for all that she had received from him.
In other cases the most various and sometimes valuable presents are set
down as received by him ; his wife, too, who had made herself quite a
home at Antwerp, came in for presents now and then. Diirer shows
himself a passionate collector of curiosities. Natural products from abroad,
offered by merchants who had traffic with countries beyond the seas, were
welcome gifts to him ; he also availed himself of several opportunities of
acquiring such things by purchase. But he also procured works of art.
For instance he exchanged a large number of his own prints for the whole
engraved work of Lucas van Leyden. He was fond of buying "Italian art",
which means Italian prints, and after he had made the acquaintance of a
pupil of Raphael, Vincidor of Bologna, who visited him, he handed to him
his complete work on wood and copper with a commission to send him in
exchange from Italy "the work of Raphael", that is to say Marcantonio's
engravings. On visiting the studio of the famous illuminator of Antwerp,
Gerard Horebout, he acquired a miniature painted by the latter's daughter,
and remarked on it: "It is a great marvel that a woman can do so much".
He did not take about his works of art , however , merely for the purpose
of gifts or barter, but he did a busy trade in them as well ; and not in
his own merely, for he had also undertaken to sell the prints of his friends,
among whom he names especially "Griinhans", by whom he means Hans
Baldung Grien. We learn from the diary at what low prices Diirer's
engravings, which are now so valuable, were sold in those days. For he
keeps careful accounts of all items of receipts and expenditure, the last
including an immense number of "tips"; he also mentions various small
sums that he lost at play, and a loss suffered one day when Dame Agnes
had her purse cut off. Accounts were also kept of the proceeds of Diirer's
artistic work. He had taken no materials with him for painting, except
water-colours , with which he painted both on paper and on canvas. But

AI.BRKCHT HIRER.

129

lig. 110. P.jRfKMT (II Jiiii\NMs Ki KKiiRKGEK OK Nl'BEMBErg, ID his fortieth vcar.

oil-painting of 1526 in the Imperial Gallery, Vienna.

(From a photograph by J. Lowy, Vienna).

soon after his first arrival at Antwerp he tound himself compelled to borrow
oil-colours and an apprentice from Joachim Patenier. His skill in art was
in request in every direction , not only for likenesses , drawn or painted,
hut for many other purposes. For instance, he had to prepare a plan for
a house for the Archduchess Margaret's physician ; he made designs for
jewellery for the goldsmiths at Antwerp, and drew a cartoon for the figure
of a Saint, to be carried out in embroidery, for a guild of merchants; he
drew armorial bearings for gentlemen of rank, and designed fancy dresses
for the carnival masquerade.

Diirer's memoranda are, as a rule, quite brief and concise, and yet
the few words sometimes give a vivid picture of a person or an event.
Festivities often induce him to give a more detailed account; for instance,

Kn.\ckfl'ss, Albrecht Diirer. 9

ISO

ALBRECIIT Dt'KKR

VlVENTlS V 0TVIT-DVRERIV5- ORAPHl UPPI

A\ENTEA\.-NOKI-POTViT-PiNGERE-DOCTA

^v\Am;s

Fig. 117. Philip Melaschthon. Portrait engraved in 1526.

he had great satisfaction in describing the first great entertainment given in
his honour by the artists of Antwerp.

The diary betrays at ever)" point the observation of the painter, whose
eyes are always at work. Now it is the sight of a town, now the view
from a tower, here a garden , there a building , which fixes the master's
attention ; at one time it is a pretty face and at another the fine stallions
at the horse-fair, that he thinks worth recording. As a true son of the
Renaissance he notices directly in the Minster at Aix-la-Chapelle that the
antique columns "inwoven" with the building are correctly formed according
to the canon of Vitruvius.

Events of historical importance, which were then agitating Germany,
also engaged his attention. He is deeply moved by the news of Luther's
captivity. On the day when he hears of it he inserts a long and fer\'ent
prayer in the midst of his memoranda. He lets it be seen that in all the

Fig. Iia. PuKTKAil Mi- HlEKUNV.'.KL-. II.jL,:.^ lU IIEK, COUNCILLOR OF NuKEMBEKt^.

Oil-painiing of 1526 in the Royal Museum, Berlin.
(From a photograph by Franz Himfstiingl, Munich.)

9*

132

AI.HRFniT in'KKK.

candour and profound piety of his heart he is in sympathy with the attempt
at a reformation , without having an idea that a schism in the church will
be the consequence of it.

When we read what an enormous amount Diirer was drawing and
painting, always and e\-erywhere, for others during his sojourn in the
Netherlands, in the intervals of all the festivities, the visits to high and
low, the inspection of places of interest, the travelling to and fro by post,
on horseback or by boat , it seems hardly possible to believe that he still
could always find time to think of study on his own account. And yet
he brought back with him not only a sketch-book w'ell filled with drawings,
a great part of them ver>- careful indeed , but also a number of larger
studies carried out with the greatest pains. The drawings reproduced as
Fig. lOO, I02 and lo6 offer excellent specimens of Diirer's industry while
on his travels. The first is a sharp and rapid pen-drawing in which Diirer
recorded the features of a man whose lute-playing he had admired , and
with whom he became closely acquainted, as is proved by a later repetition
of the same likeness. The second is a pair of heads, those of an old and
a young woman of Zeeland, powerfully drawn on a large scale with a broad
metal-point. The third is a delicate silver-point drawing in which he
utilized with penetrating observation the rare opportunity of drawing a
negress. The crowning achievement in the collection of studies which
Diirer formed on his travels is the life-sized head , drawn in black and
white, partly with the brush and partly w ith a crowquill , on grey-toned
paper, of an old man of ninety-three who frequently sat to him as a model
at Antwerp (Fig. lo8). It is characteristic of the master's indefatigable
energy, that when nothing else occurred to him , he turned to the subject
nearest at hand and drew his wife's portrait. A large silver-point drawing
on a dark ground in the Cabinet of Engravings at Berlin shows us Dame
Agnes in the Dutch headgear which her husband had brought back for
her from his journey to Zeeland (Fig. 105 1. But it was not only heads
that he put into his portfoHo of studies ; he drew a variety of other objects,
such as views of the harbour and cathedral at Antwerp, or remarkable
national costumes (Fig. loi), or a lion which he observed in the walled den
at Ghent. Even when on board ship he was not idle. A leaf from his
sketch-book (in the Berlin Cabinet) shows a view of the high banks near
Andernach drawn from the boat on the Rhine, with the bust of a fellow-
traveller in front of them ; another, drawn off Boppard (in the Imperial
Library, Vienna), shows Dame Agnes again, drawn this time with her head
muffled in a thick wrapper. Among the pictures which Diirer painted in
the Netherlands, the portrait in tempera of an old man with a red cap
(in the Louvre) and the portrait in oils of the painter Bernard van Orley
(in the Dresden Gallery) are e.xtant.

When Diirer had come home in the summer of 15-I, well provided
with presents for his friends , he immediately received a commission from
his native town. The Council requested him to prepare designs for painting

^V^^H

^^Hp^ ^Hi '^^^^^^^^^^^1

wS^ ^"^^^^HI^HK^ j^E''.'." ^sb'"'' i^H

i ii;. iiM. i iiiL ViKGiN WITH THE AppLE. Oil-paiiumg ot 15^6 in the Ut'iJzi G-iiltry. li^r^iic;:
(From a photograph by Giacomo Brogi, Florence.)

134

AI.BKKCHT DCKKR.

the hall of the Rathaus. The
threefold purpose for which the
hall was used , for diets , assizes
and festivities, determined the
choice of subjects. The majesty
of the emperor was exalted by
the composition of the great
"Triumphal Chariot", prepared
for Maximilian, which Diirer now
altered so far as to let the em-
peror appear alone, without his
family, amidst the allegorical sur-
roundings. He also published the
"Triumphal Chariot" in this form
as a w-oodcut in 1522 (for a por-
tion thereof see Fig. 109). For the
surface next to this in size of the
wall which was to be painted,
the master designed a warning
against a too hasty judgement,
in the shape of an allegory of
calumny, from a much -quoted
description by Lucian of a picture
by Apelles. This design, a finished
pen-drawing of the year 1522, is
preserved in the Albertina. For
the smaller central space between
the two large pictures he designed
a humorous subject, a group of
seven town-musicians and seven
other figures of the populace,
which was known as the "Pipers'
seat " (Pfeiferstuhl). Diirer merely
made the sketches for these paint-
ings , which were carried out by
other hands. The wall-paintings
are still in existence, but coarsely
re-painted and in a bad state
of preservation.

Diirer's principal works, how-
ever, at this time and in the years
which followed , were portraits.
A bust of an elderly man in a
fur coat and a wide, black hat , which somehow found its way into the
possession of Philip IV. of Spain, is dated 1521 (Fig. 107). This splendid

Fig. 120. The Apostles John .\nj) I'kiek.

Oil-painting of 1522 in the Pinakolhek, Munich.

(From a photograph by Franz Hanfstiingl Munich.)

AMSRF.CHT DUKER.

135

portrait, which has been supposed
to represent Hans Imhof the elder
of Nuremberg, hangs in the Prado
Gallery at Madrid in a place of
honour among the most select
masterpieces of various nations
and centuries , together with Dii-
rer's own portrait of 1498. The
energ\' with which Diirer laboured
throughout his life to perfect
himself in art is nowhere so ap-
parent as here , where the two
portraits , one of which belongs
to the first decade of his career
as an artist, the other to the last,
are seen side by side. The
youthful portrait appears very hard
to an eye which is spoilt by
such pictures as those which sur-
round it, but the portrait of 1521
can hold its own against any
neighbour. It is perfect, without
any reservation. Its painting is of
a quality which renders it superior
even to the celebrated portraits
which Diirer painted a few years
later. In 1522 Diirer published the
large and magnificent portrait on
wood of the imperial councillor
and protonotary of the supreme
court, Ulrich Varnbiiler, an inti-
mate friend of the master's.
Later on there followed a small
woodcut -portrait of the humanist
Eobanus Hessus. It was probably
on the occasion of the diet at
Nuremburg, from 1522 to 1523,
that Diirer took a second portrait
of Cardinal Albert of Branden-
burg, and one of his earliest royal
patron , Frederick the Wise of
Saxony. He engraved both like-
nesses on copper, the first in
1523 (called "the Great Cardinal"
trait of 1519;, the second in 1524 (Fig. in and IT2>

Fig.

St. M.\rk thf. Ev'.\ngeust and St. Pai'L.
Oil-painting of 1526 in the Pinakothek, Munich.

/From a photosraph l)y Franz Hanfstiingl. Munich.")

to distinguish it from the small por-

136 ALI',kl-.( 111 DUKKR.

A worthy companion to these noble engraved portraits is that of his
ever faithful friend, Wilibald Pirkheimer (also engraved in 1524, Fig. 1 13),
who had made his name famous not only as a scholar but also as a
statesman and commander. In 1526 he produced the engraved portraits
of Erasmus of Rotterdam, whom Durer had twice drawn from life in the
Netherlands, and of Melanchthon fFig. 117), who at that time resided
repeatedly at Nuremberg in order to direct the management of the newly
founded school , and who was united to Diirer by the ties of mutual
admiration and liking. These were the master's last engravings.

The last portraits painted by Diirer also belong to the year 1526.
Among them is that of Johann Kleeberger , Wilibald Pirkheimcr's son-in-
law, in the Imperial Picture-Gallery at Vienna, which is curious for the wav
in which the subject is posed, according to his own wish, with a pedantic
reminiscence of antique precedents. Kleeberger's portrait is conceived as
a bust , in ancient Roman style , set in a stone frame , and one sees that
Durer did not quite get over the contradiction of painting a faithful portrait
of a living man and making this portrait, at the same time, appear like
a piece of carved and painted stone (Fig. Ii6j. The master w-as all the
more glad at having to paint the heads, full of character, of two elderly
men who held the highest offices in the City of Nuremberg and were both
on friendly terms with himself These are the two splendid portraits now
in the Royal Museum at Berlin ; that of Jakob Rluffel, a serious, thoughtful
man with a clean-shaven face, who looks a little weary of life (Fig. 11 5)
and that of Hieronymus Holzschuher, from whose healthy-looking face, with
silvery locks and a white beard, the eyes glance with youthful fire (Fig. 118).
Both portraits are great and masterly, but it is evident that the appearance
of the old Holzschuher was peculiarly attractive to the painter, so that he
produced one of his most excellent works in this portrait , which is over-
flowing with life, in the fullest sense of the word.

Even during his stay in the Netherlands, Diirer had formed a plan of
representing the Passion of Christ once more — for the fifth time — as a con-
nected series. The work, destined to be carried out as a series of wood-
cuts, was never realised in this form; even of the designs, only a small
portion was finished. But these designs, pen-drawings of oblong shape, are
precious works of art. Like each of the earlier Passions, they are united
by a single vein of sentiment and poetry which runs through them all.
The numerous repetitions of one and the same subject suggest that he did
not find it easy to determine, among all these compositions, which to
regard as satisfactory; and it was, perhaps, on that account that he gave
up the whole project, feeling that it would be impossible for him to do
the work to his complete satisfaction. The earliest of these drawings are
two compositions of Christ bearing the Cross, both drawn in 1520, when
he was still at Antwerp , and both now at Florence. One of them has a
procession of numerous figures, which is just leaving the gate of the city ;
the staring crowd presses forward on both sides ; the roughness of the

Fi^. 122. The LARCiE head of Chrlsi. Chiaroscuro wood-cut cxccutcii .il'tcr Durcr's iii;.i:;'..

I3S ALBRECHT DUKER.

soldiers who make way for the procession , and who are irritated at the
standstill occasioned when Christ sinks to the ground , is represented with
merciless truth. We perceive clearly the influence of the art of the Nether-
lands. The other compositions also contains a thick throng of people, so
naturally grouped that the mass seems to live and move ; but the violence
of the first design is avoided. Christ is not represented at the moment
of falling, but as treading wearily under the burden of the heavy cross,
and the effect is almost more touching in consequence (Fig. 103). There
are three drawings of the Entombment, dated 1 52 1 (one at Florence, one
at Frankfort, one in the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg), which, while
differing greatly from one another, agree in a departure from the u.sual
mode of treating the subject, inasmuch as a regular funeral procession is
passing along. In the drawing at Florence, Joseph of Arimathea, with other
persons who bear spices and linen, is walking in front of the sacred Body;
the small company of relatives and faithful friends who follow, and of whom
the IMagdalen alone has stepped forward in loud lamentation to the side
of the dead Saviour, are succeeded by a crowd of people who, like several
men who are watching the procession , have been attracted not so much
by respect for the person who is being borne to the grave , as by mere
curiosity (Fig. 104), Thus here, too, the emphasis is on a natural incident
in the life of the people. In 1523 Diirer drew a sketch for the Last Supper
(in the Albertina) , which also departs in arrangement from the customary
mode of treating the subject: Christ does not sit in the middle, but at the
head of the long table. But in a design of the same year, which was en-
graved on wood, Diirer has arranged the composition in a manner similar
to that of Leonardo da Vinci's fresco. By the shape and the styles of draw-
ing , the beautiful drawing in the Albertina of the Adoration of the JNIagi
must also belong to this series of subjects from the life of Christ; it is a
simple and sincerely-felt composition, yet not without grandeur (Fig. 114).
Of all these compositions only one, the Last Supper already mentioned, was
carried out as a woodcut.

The last woodcut of a religious subject which Diirer published — in the
year 1526 — was a Holy Family; a small, delicately drawn and charming
print, which depends for its peculiar poetical effect on the haloes sur-
rounding the heads of the mother and child, which fill the whole atmosphere
with streams of light.

The years in which the Reformation was being introduced into Nurem-
berg , bringing with it an uneasy and wavering state of mind , were not
favourable to religious painting. A small altarpiece was finished in Diirer's
studio in 1523. This work is usually called the Jabach altarpiece, because
during the greater part of its existence as a whole it was the ornament
of the private chapel of the Jabach family at Cologne. It is now dispersed
and the several parts are in the Pinakcthek at Munich , the Municipal
Museum at Cologne , and the Stadel Institute of Frankfort. Diirer him-
self most likely had no hand in the painting. It may even have been the

ALBRECHT DtlRER.

139

order foi' this altar-
piece that occasioned
a return to the habit
of employing assistants,
whom he does not
seem to have used in
carrying out his works
since i 509.

In 1526 Diner paint-
ed another small devo-
tional picture, of the
Virgin , nearly half-
length and a little less
than the size of life,
with the Infant Jesus
on her arm , holding
an apple ready for
him. The child, who
holds a corn - flower
in his little hand , is
just a natural baby.
The Virgin has a gentle
and modest expres-
sion which is pleasing
enough, but the at-
tempt at idealising the
forms is not altogether
successful, and doubl_\-
surprising at this late
period in the master's
career. There is a
(Fig. 119).

In the same year Diirer completed his last great work in painting, the
two pictures with the Apostles St. John and St. Peter on one side, and
St. Paul and St. Mark on the other which go by the name of the " Four
Apostles" or the "Four Temperaments", and are now one of the treasures
of the Pinakothek at Munich. He had been engaged for years in producing
characteristic figures of the Apostles. He engraved five such figures
between 15 14 and 1526, but never finished the series. He was eager to
speak the last word of his art, so to speak, in the painting of the Apostles,
the studies for which date back to 1523. Diirer had been ailing since
December 1520, when he was first sized with a severe attack of illness on
the journey to Zeeland. He now felt that the da\s of his strength for
active work were numbered. Before the end came, he wanted to leave a
work of art as a legacy to his beloved native city, and for this purpose

123. The co.\t of ar.ms with the cock. Engraving

])eculiar tone of melancholy about the picture

140

ALBKKcirr nrRKR.

rig. 1-4. All;Khi:ill DuULKV PlKKMElMFK EuKDilK.

First printed in Wilibaid Pirkheimer's Plutarch. Nuremberg, Friedrich Peypus, 1513.

he chose the subject of the Apostles. It was in a deeply serious mood,
but with the energy of youth , that he created these majestic life-sized
figures, in wliich his power of depicting character appears at its full height.
He devoted to this work all the loving care which he could lavish on the
execution, while avoiding anything like pettiness of finish. Here he attained
at last that sublime simplicity, which, as he once confessed to Melanchthon,
full of grief at his shortcomings , he recognised as the highest ornament
of art , but had never hoped himself to attain. The figures stand out in
majestic grandeur aganst a plain black ground. The spectator's entire
attention is directed to the four heads. The two pieces of drapery which
fill the greater part of the surface of the pictures, the white mantle of
St. Paul and the red one of St. John, are cast w'ith a grand simplicity
which harmonize fully with the grandeur of the heads (Fig. i::o and 121).

ALHRECllT DURI-.R.

141

LIBER BILIBALDI PIRCKHEI.UER.

Fig. 125. Pirkheimer's book-plate. Woodcut.

With the arms of Pirkheimer and Rieter, consequently

drawn before the death of Pirkheimer's wife,

Crescentia Rieter, in 1504.

The great diversity of the head.s
yave rise to the opinion , even in
Diirer's life-time, that the pictures
were also intended to represent
the " Four Temperaments". Con-
sidering the great significance
which the science of those days
attached to the so-called "Tem-
]ieraments", or mixtures of the
fluids in the human body, ac-
cording as the elements of fire,
air. water, or earth predominated,
it is not at all improbable that
Di'irer himself may have borne
these distinctions in mind. What
the meditative St. John , the calm
St. Peter, the animated St. Mark
and the fiery St. Paul are intended
to declare to the beholder, the
]>ainter has explained by the in-
scriptions which he attached to
the pictures : "All worldly rulers

must take good heed in these perilous times that they accept no vain
doctrine of men instead of the Word of God , for God will have nought
added to His Word, nor taken from it. Hear, therefore, these four right
worthy man, Peter, John, Paul and Mark." Then, as their "warning", he
quotes the passages in the Second Epistle of St. Peter, the First Epistle
of St. John , the Second Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy and the twelfth
chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark, which contain warnings against false
prophets and teachers of heresy, repudiators of the Divinity of Christ,
blasphemers and arrogant scribes. Durer presented the two panels with
their admonitory inscriptions to his native city, as a memorial to himself,
in the autumn of 1526. There is a touching modesty in the letter to the
town-council which accompanied his gift: "Whereas I had long had a
desire to present Your Wisdom with a picture of some small worth in
remembrance of me, yet must I needs forego the honour by reason of the
shortcomings of my own poor work. But since of late I have painted a
picture and spent on it more labour than on any other paintings, I deem
none more worthy to preserve it for a remembrance than Your Wisdom ;
wherefore I offer the same herewith to Your Wisdom, praying with all
submission that you do think fit graciously to accept this little gift, and
to be and remain my gracious lords and benefactors, as you have ever
proved yourselves aforetime."

For a century the two paintings hung in the room where the first
magistrate of Nuremberg held his court. Then the Elector Maximilian

142

AI.liKKCHT DUKER.

of Bavaria acquired them. At the instance of the town-council of Nurem-
berg, the Elector had the somewhat embarrassing inscriptions sawn off the
panels and placed beneath the copies which the people of Nuremberg
retained instead of the originals.

With the year 1526, which was so rich in first-class works, Diirer's
career as an artist was practically at an end.

His achievements as painter, engraver and designer of woodcuts were
very numerous and very great. He had given shapes which have remained
typical ever since to the sublimest themes of Christian art. His type of
the head of Christ, especially when crowned with thorns, majestic even in
suffering (Fig. 76), can never be surpassed; a woodcut which did not
appear till after Diirer's death , but which undoubtedly is based on a
drawing by him , which depicts the anguish of suffering and the victory-
gained over suffering, suffering changed by purpose into action, in a head
of Christ twice the size of life, has not unreasonably been praised as
the Christian counterpart of the Olympian Zeus (Fig. 122). He had not
disdained withal to apply his great powers to seemingly paltry objects.
He drew splendid coats-of-arms , including the finest thing which the Re-
naissance produced in the way of heraldry (Fig. 123). He designed
ornamental title-pages for books and tasteful book-plates ("Ex-libris") for

his friends' libraries (Fig. 125 and
126). He constructed alphabets
and contributed by his admirable
Roman letters to the reform of type
at the Renaissance, a reform which
it must be owned , remained in-
complete in Germany, which still
persists with extraordinary tena-
city in ruining its eyes by the
use ol the late -Gothic type with
its angular small letters and its
queer and intricate capitals. He
drew rarities of natural history to
satisfy the curiosity of the public,
and produced designs of an ar-
chitectural and decorative kind,
both for the object of general
instruction and for special objects
on behalf of his friends. Painters
and sculptors owed to his gene-
rosity designs on which their
works were based. For instance,
there is a sketch by his hand
for a picture carried out by Hans
von Kulmbach and another for a

PAJJTA KAe.\B< Ton: KAeAPoTs-*"

OMNIA MVNDAMVNDIS
D.HECTOR POMER PRtPOi & UVVRj

Fig. 126. Buui^-rLAlt OF HtcluK I'uMKK, provost

of St. Laurence, Nuremberg. Woodcut.

Motto: "To the pure all things are pure", in three

languages.

ALliRIiCHT DURER.

143

sepulchral monument
cast by Peter Vischer
(Fig. 90). In his readi-
ness to oblige, he met
every request which
was addressed to him;
there is a remarkable
example in a drawing
of monkeys dancing,
which he sent to Martin
Felix Frey at Zurich
enclosed in a letter
(now in the Basle Mu-
seum), excusing him-
self for his inability
to make the drawing
better, because he had
not seen a live monkey
for a long time (Fig.
no). Diirer, the keen
enquirer, was glad to
place the dexterity of
his hand at the service Fig 127. Studv

of science , not only
when it was a question

of supplementing with illustrations the treaties on special subjects composed
by himself; he also drew charts of the celestial and terrestrial globes for
his friend Stabius. He also made occasional use of what he had learnt
as a boy in his father's goldsmith's shop. Thus he engraved a small gold
plate with the group of the Crucifixion to adorn the pommel of a sword
for the Emperor Maximilian. The little plate itself has disappeared , and
there are only a few impressions of it in existence, which go by the name
of the "Degenknopf" (pommel) (Fig. 134). He produced a rehef, cast in
silver, with a graceful female figure, for a casket which was presented to
a young lady of the Imhof family, and is in the possession of that family
at Nuremberg to the present day.

In order to know and appreciate Diirer completely, it is necessary to
make a study of his drawings. A large number of these are preserved,
of all periods of his career. It is true that they are scattered far apart in
public and private collections , but the greater part of them have been
published in excellent reproductions , the photographs of ^Messrs. Braun,
and others. The master's indefatigable industry, the conscientiousness with
which he studied and the wealth of his fancy are equally api)arent in these
sketches and studies, rapidly thrown off or worked out with loving care,
in every imaginable sort of technique. The studies of heads rank highest.

AN ANGF-1-. (_h;iik-dr,iwing heightt-nt-'d with white.
British Museum.

144

ALBRECHT DURER.

Fig. 128. Portrait of a man inknown. Charcoal-
drawing in the Alberdna, Vienna.

(From a photograph by Braun Clement & Co.,
Dornach and Paris.)

In these transcript.s from nature,
be they on a larye or a small
scale, drawn with brush or pen,
with silver-point or charcoal, there
is a freshness seldom to be found
so completely in the finished
pictures. How much was often
lost in the transference to painting
is shown especially in the heads
of children, which s.;enerally suffer
from a certain hardness in the
pictures, whereas they are delight-
ful in the studies (Fig. 127). In
addition to the studies made for
definite works, the heads of models
and the portraits of persons whose
names are known, there are a
large number of portraits of un-
known people, who only survive
in the drawings which bring them
before us wellnigh with the
reahty and vigour of life itself
(Fig. 128, a portrait drawing ot about 1520). Our attention is held
especially by the drawings in which the person represented is not posed
as if sitting for his portrait, but is taken in an apparently accidental — but
convincingly characteristic — attitude, with a realism which one is inclined
to call modern in the extreme (Fig. 129). There are masterpieces of the
most scrupulous imitation of nature among the water-colour drawings,
studies of plants and animals , which Diirer made apparently for no other
reason than because it was a joy to him to study nature with thoroughness
and devotion; for instance, a dead roller^) and a wing of the same bird,
in the Albertina, painted on smooth vellum, with an incomparable rendering
of the sheen on the feathers; and a hare in the same collection in which
one may almost say that every hair is drawn. There is no less enjoyment
to be obtained from the study of the sketches for compositions, which are
mostly drawn straight off with the pen with a certain degree of complete-
ness (Fig. 36, 103, 104, 114, 130), but are occasionally confined to a mere
rapid indication (Fig. i, 131), or a few sketchy lines which setde the
main structure of a picture (Fig. 132). Even here the first draft of the
artist's idea has a freshness and sincerity of expression, the charm of which
cannot make itself felt in the same way at first hand after the necessar\-
labour and time have been spent on carrying it out. A large number
of Dtirer's extant sketches of compositions are drawn without reference

') A bird of blue plumage, coracia gaiTiila (German, Mandelkrahe ; p'rench, corneille bleue).

ALURECIIT nrRFR.

>45

^

Silver-point drawing in the Royal Print-Cabinet, Berlin.

to any proposed work of a more finished character, and are merely done
to satisfy the creative impulse of the moment. There are also some which
are meant to be considered as elaborate and finished works of art in
themselves. The most excellent drawings of this nature, after the "Green
Passion", are two compositions which form a pair (in the Albertina and in
the Berlin Cabinet), representing the Resurrection of Christ and Samson in
combat with the Philistines, drawn with the utmost delicacy and finish in black
and white on paper with a dark ground. In each case Di'irer thought fit to
sign his name in full at the bottom. There is a peculiar class of drawings
connected with scientific enquiry, in that they seek to determine the limits
of possible variations in the conformation of the human face (Fig. 133), or
aim at settling the laws of harmonious proportion by drawing measurements
and lines ruled with the compass over figures of men and horses.

From 1526 onwards Diirer was engaged almost exclusively in writing
books. As early as 1525 he had published a book on the "Art of Measure-

Knackfuss , Albrecht Diirer. lO

146

AI-KKKCirr Df'RF.K.

.it I

Fig. 130. St. Christopher. Pen-drawing in a private collection at Paris.

merit" (perspective), with explanatory cuts. He had also written treatises
on gymnastics and on music, but these he did not publish. In 1527 the
many-sided artist dedicated to King Ferdinand a book, adorned with
numerous illustrations and a fine heraldic frontispiece, which he intended
to be of service to his fatherland , then menaced by the Turks , and
which , in fact , was not without practical importance in the sequel. This
was the "Instructions for Fortifying Cities, Castles and Towns". A large
woodcut closely connected in subject with this work, representing the
siege of a town , was the last purely artistic piece of work which Diirer
published. — The master was still anxious to impart to further generations

ALRRECHT Dt'RER.

ur

of artists the experience gained by iiimself in the field of art. The great
artist set but small store by his own art; but he believed that in time
the artists of Germany "would not let the prize go to any other nation".
He wished to do what in him lay towards attaining this goal , by calling
attention to the necessity to the artist of scientific study. He lamented
the Ignorance of many of his own profession, who had been trained merely
as craftsmen and so painted with dexterity, indeed, but without reflection
The "Art of Measurement " was to be merely a part of the comprehensive
course of instruction for beginners in art which he had been engaged for
a long time in preparing. The principal part of this work was to be a
"Doctrine of Proportion" in four books; treatises on painting and other
subjects were to follow. He himself, however, was only able to finish
definitely the first book of the "Doctrine of Proportion", which was after-
wards prepared for the press, and published in its entirety by his friends,
and was subsequently translated into many languages.

Fig. 131. Maktvkdom of St. C.\therise. Sketch for a frieze, pen-drawing in the British Museum.

Diirer passed peacefully away by a sudden and unexpected death be-
fore completing his fifty- seventh year. He was buried in the vault of the
Frey family in St. John's churchyard at Nuremberg. A Latin inscription
of classical brevity composed by Pirkheimer is placed on the bronze plate
which covers the grave :

ME. Ah. DV.
Quicquid Alberti Dureri mortale
fuit ; sub hoc conditur tumulo.
Emigravit VHI Idus Aprilis MDXXVin.')

Numerous utterances tell us of the grief with which the news of his
death was received by the greatest men of the day.

Highly as Diirer had been honoured on account of his art — he was
called "the German Apelles" by his scholar friends — , he had been esteemed
and admired still more highly on account of his virtues as a man.

We have a fine sketch of his personality left us by Joachim Camerarius,
the first director of the school founded by Melanchthon at Nuremberg, in
the preface to the Latin edition of Durer's "Doctrine of Proportion".
"Nature had given him", says Camerarius, "a body of handsome make

I) To the metnorj- of Albrecht Diirer. All that was mortal of .\lbrecht Durer is laid
within this tomb. He departed on .■\prU 6''>, 152S.

10*

148

AMiRECHT DURER.

and stature, suitable to the beautiful spirit which it contained. — He had an
alert head, brilliant eyes, a fine and powerful nose; his neck w-as slightly
too long, his chest broad, his body slim, his thighs sinewy, his legs stal-
wart. His fingers were so shapely that none more beautiful can ever have
been seen. But there was such a music and charm in his utterance, that
his listeners could not but be sorry when he ceased to speak. — His soul
was filled with ardent desire for all that was honourable in manners and
conduct , and he set such an example that he was deservedly esteemed
a man of the highest excellence. For all that, he was not stern or sullen.

Fig. 132. Virgin .\nd Saints. Pen-skelch, apparently of the period following the first journey to Venice.

In the Louvre, Paris.

The Saints in the upper row are distinguished by notes in Diirer's hand-wTiting as James, Joseph.
Joachim and Zacharias, John, David, Elixabeth and Anne.

nor of a displeasing seriousness ; on the contrary, whatever tends to amenity
and cheerfulness , without conflicting with honour and rectitude , he had
cultivated himself throughout his life and still approved in his old age, as
is proved by the WTitings which he left on gymnastics and on music. But
nature had fashioned him beyond all else for a painter, wherefore he gave
himself up to the study of that art with all his might , and was bent on
making himself acquainted with the works of famous painters in every
country and on learning their theory and practice and making his own so
much of it as he thought good. — It is with perfect justice that we admire
Albrecht as the most zealous upholder of purity and good morals, and as
a man who let it be known b}' the grandeur of his paintings that he was

ALBRI-XIIT DtlKER.

149

l*"'g' '33- StUDV of the varieties of FACivVL TVPH.

In a private collection at Paris.

conscious of his power,
while even his less
important works are
by no means to be
despised. We find in
them not a line un-
considered or ill-drawn,
not a dot superfluous.
What shall I say of
the firmness and surc-
ness of his hand .'' One
could almost swear
that he had used rule
and compass for what
he had drawn just
with the brush , the
pencil or the pen and
no other assistance, to
the amazement of all
beholders. How can
I tell of the close cor-
respondence between

hand and creative spirit, which he displayed when he would draw on paper
the counterfeit of anything whatsoever. It will, no doubt, appear incredible
to those who read my words hereafter that he sometimes began a drawing
of a composition or of a body in different places, wide apart, which yet,
when he came to connect them , united so perfectly, that nothing more
coherent could be imagined. With the like readiness he carried out the
most delicate things on canvas or panel with the brush without a preliminary
drawing , and did so without a fault , or rather so as to win the highest
praise for it all. This was most admired by the most famous painters, since
they best understood the feat and appreciated its difficulty. — High as Albrecht
stood , his great and lofty spirit was ever craving for some still higher
perfection. — If there was anything at all in this man which resembled a fault,
it was his unbounded industry and the keen self-criticism which hardly did
justice to his own achievements. — There is nothing impure, nothing un-
worthy, in his works ; for the thoughts of his chaste mind shrank from all
such things. How worthy was the artist of his great success!"

Diirer's fame as an artist was undisputed even in his lifetime , not
only in Germany and the Netherlands, but also in Italy. At Venice, as
well as at Antwerp, an annual pension was offered in order to retain him
permanently, and it was only his sense of patriotism that resisted the oflers,
which were sufficiently good to be tempting. When he travelled from
Venice to Bologna , he was greeted by the artists of the latter place with
extravagant rejoicings, and at Ferrara poems were composed in his honour.

I50 ALBRECHT DtJRER.

Raphael exchanged works with the German master, "to shew him his hand".
Of the number of drawings which Raphael sent as his present to Diirer,
a sheet of studies from a model, authenticated by a note in DiJrer's hand-
writing is still preserved (in the Albertina) ; the portrait of himself, painted
in tempera on canvas, which Diirer sent in return and which astonished
Raphael by its execution , has disappeared. The great painter of Urbino
had no hesitation in founding one of his most celebrated pictures, that
of Christ bearing the Cross, known as "Lo Spasimo di SiciUa", on the
corresponding print in Durer's Great Passion. Other Italian masters also
have borrowed from Diirer, to whom they frankly conceded the superiority
as regards inventive genius. The inexhaustible fertility of his imagination
was revealed to them mainly through the woodcuts, which were circulated
both in original impressions and in the Italian engraved imitations. The
universal popularity of Diirer's works also made them the prey of copyists
and forgers in his own country. The town -council of Nuremberg had to
interfere repeatedly in defence of Durer's copyright in his own creations,
not only during his life but also afterwards, when the property in them had
passed to his widow, who survived her husband eleven years. Later still,
forgeries were produced on quite a large scale. Even works of a kind
which Diirer had probably never made at all , small reliefs in lithographic
stone and portrait medals , were signed with his monogram and brought
into the market as works of Diirer. Allmost all his larger pictures were
removed from their original destinations by the zeal of princely collectors,
among whom the Emperor Rudolph II took the lead. It was not till the
second half of the seventeenth centur>', when French taste in matters of art
because prevalent in Germany, that the admiration for the great master who
was so entirely and so truly German began to fall off. The first to recognise
his importance again and to appreciate it duly was the young Goethe, who
preferred "the most wooden figures" of this masculine artist to the smooth
sort of painting in vogue in his own day, and declared , at a time when
artists and connoisseurs were doing homage to very different ideals, that
Diirer, "when one has learnt to know him thoroughly, has no rival but
the first men of the Italian school in truth, in sublimity, and even in grace".

Fig. 134. The Crucifixion.
Impression from a gold plate engraved for the pommel of a sword.

INDEX.

Adam and I'>e (engraving), 44.

,, ,, ,, (pictures), 63, 64, 108.
Adoration of the Magi, 45.
Aix-la-('hapelle, I20, 123, 130.
All Saints' Altarpiece, 67, 70, 82, 103.
Anilernacli, 132.
Andrcii, Hicronymus, 92.
Antony, St., 1 1 8.

Antwerp, I20, 121, 122, 126, 128, 129, 130,

132, 136, 149.
Apelles, 103, 134.
Apocalypse, 27—39, 74.
Amemuiden, 125.
Augsburg, Diet of, 1 14, 118.

„ Gallery, 24, 104.

Baldung, Hans, 128.
Bamberg, 120, 121.
Basle, 5.

„ Museum, 45, 74.
I'ellini, Giovanni, 62.
Berlin, Gallery, 24, 136.

,, Print-Cabinet, 2, 90, 132, 145.
Bois-le-duc, 120.
Bologna, 62, 128, 149.
Boppard, 121, 132.
Brandenburg, Albert of, 118, 135.
Bremen, Kunsthalle, 45, 91.
British Museum, 24, 42.
Bruges, 120, 126.
Brunswick, 10.
Brussels, 120, 122, 128.
Camerarius, Joachim, 147.
Cannon, the Great, 1 1 2.
Cardinal, the Great, 135.
Cassel Gallerj', 26.
Charles the (ireat, 84.
Charles V., [20, 122, 123, 128.
Chelidonius, 80.
Christ, head of, 142.
Christian II. of Denmark, 1 28.
Colraar, 5.

Cologne, 120, 121, 123, 138.
Crucitixion, 60.

Dresden Gallery, 14, 60, 132.
Diirer, Agnes, 7, 121, 128, 150.

„ ,, Portraits of, 7, 10, 132.

Diirer, Albrecht (the elder), I, 12.

,, ,, Portraits of, 3, 5, 24.

Diirer, .Mbrecht ; —

,, Birth and education, I — 3.

,, Wanderjahrc, 5 — 6.

„ Portraits of himself, 6, 26, 71, 135.

Diirer, Albrecht; —

,, Marriage. 7.

,, Early altarpieces, 14 — 24.

„ Early woodcuts, 27.

,, Reforms in wood-engraving, 39.

,, Early engravings, 40.

,, Convictions on art, 13, 14, 24, 42.

„ Residence at Venice (1505 — 1507), 59

to 63.

,, Return to Nuremberg, 63.

,, Pictures of 1507 — 1511, 63 — 74.

,, Publication of the woodcut books, 74, 80.

,, Devotion to engraving, 85 — 86.

,, Realism in drawing, 90.

„ Works for Maximilian I., 92 — 103.

,, Pictures of 1516 — 1518, 104, 108.

„ "Dry-points", 109.

„ Etchings, III.

,, Journey to the Netherlands, 120 — 132.

,, Portraits, painted and engraved, 134 — 136.

,, Late pictures, 138 — 141.

,, Ornamental works, 142 — 143.

„ Drawings, 143 — 145.

,, Literary works, 145 — 147.

,, Death and burial, 147.

,, Portrait written by Camerarius, 147 — 149.

„ Reputation, 149 — ^150.
Diirer, Barbara, i, 90.
Erasmus of Rotterdam, 121.
Eyck, van, 126.

Ferdinand, King of Hangar)-, 146.
Ferrara, 62, 149.
Florence, Pitti Gallery, 64.

,, Uflizi Gallerj', 3, 26, 45, 108, 136, 138.

Frankfort, 66, 67, 120, 121, 138.
Frederick the Wise, 16, 45, 64.

,, „ „ Portraits of, 24, 135.

Frey, Agnes, see Diirer.

,, Martin Felix, 143.
Fiirleger family, 24.
Fugger family, 121.
Ghent, 120, 126, 132.
Goes, Hugo van der, 126.
Goethe, 6, 150.
Gregory, Mass of St., 82.
Halo omitted, 20, 52.
Hampton Court, 62.
Heller Altarpiece, 66, 71, 75. 85.

„ Jakob, 66, 85. 120.
Heraldic subjects, 5, 44.
Hercules, 100.

.and Stymphalian Birds, 24, 99.

52

INDEX.

Hessus, Eobanus, 135.
Helper, Barbara, see DUrer.

,, Ilieronymus, I.
Holy Family, 83, 138.
Holzscliuhcr family, 24.

,, Hicronyinus, 136.

Ilorcbout, Gerard, 128.
Imhof family, 143.

„ Hans, 135.
Jabach Altarpiece, 138.
James, St., 108.
Jerome in his cell, 86, 88.

„ with the ■nillow, 109.
Julius n., 59.
Kleeberger, Johann, 136.
Knifiht, Death and Devil, 86—88.
Koburger, .\nton, I.
Krell, Oswald, 26.
Kulmbach, Hans von, 142.
Lamentation for Christ, 20, 24.
Landauer, Matthaus, 71.
Last Supper, woodcut, 13S.
Leipzig, 6.

Leyden, Lucas van, 126, 128.
Life of the Virgin, see Virgin.
Lucian, 134.
Lucretia, 108.
Luther, 1 30.

Madrid, Prado Gallery, 26, 64. 135
Magdeburg, 1 18.
Mainz, I 18.
Malines, 120, 126.
Mantegna, Andrea, 45, 62.
Mantua, 62.
Marcantonio, 1 28.

Margaret of Austria, 120, 126, 128, 129.
Martyrs, the Ten Thousand, 64, 66, 71.
Mary of Burgundy, 1 14.
Massys, Quentin, 121.

Maximilian L, 59, 92, 93, 102, 113, 114, 117, 143.
Maximilian V. of Bavaria, 67, 141.
Melancholy, 86, 88.
Melanchthon, 140, 1 47.
Memling, Hans, 126.
Michelangelo, I 26.
Muffel, Jakob, 136.

Munich, Alte Pinakothek, 16, 20, 26, 92, 138, 139.
„ Library, 94.
„ Palace, burnt in 1674, 67.
Northumberland, Duke of, 24.
Nuremberg, I, 10, 12, 16, 24, 54, 63, 67, 71,
84, 92, 112, 114, 118, 120, 135,
138, 141, 142, 143, 147, 150.

,, Germanic Museum, 24, 71,85, 1 I7>'3S.

„ Landauer Cloister, 67.

„ Rathaus, 134.

„ St. John's Churchyard, 150.

Nymwegen, 1 20.
Orley, Bernard van, 122, 132.

Paris, Lou\Te, 132.

Passion, the engraved, 82, 85 — 86.

,, the Great (woodcuts), 45, 49 — 51, 74,

78, 80.

,, the Green (drawings), 51 — 52, 145.

„ the Little (woodcuts), 80, 82.

„ series of drawings, 136.
Patenier, Joachim, 126, 129.
Paumgartner .Altarpiece, 16, 20.
Philip, St., 108.
Philip IV. of Sp.ain, 134.

Pirkheimer, Wilibald, 59, 62, 114, 136, 147.
I'r.igue, 59.

Prayerbook of Maximilian I., 93 — 103.
Prodigal Son, 42.
Raphael, 103, 128, 150.
Kink, Philip, 86. ' - -^

Rome, Barberini Gallery, 62.
Rose-Garlands, Feast of the, 59. f>°, 7'-
Rudolph II., 59, 67, 71, 150T'
Schongauer, Martin, 5.
Sebastian, St. (altarpiece), 14, 16.
Sigismund, Emperor, 84. *
Stabius, Johannes, 92, 143. ■ ' ■
Stephan, Meister, 123.
Temperaments, the Four, 139 — 142.
Trinity, Adoration of the (painting), 67, 70, 82.

„ the (woodcut), 82.
Triumphal Arch, 92, 1:3.

„ Chariot, 1 14, 134.

,, Procession, 92, 113.

Tucher family, 26.
Urbino, 1 50. --

Vambiiler, Ulrich, 135.
Vatican, Loggie of the, 103.
Veit, St. (near Vienna), 45. "
Venice, 59, 60, 62, 63, 74, "^S, 149.
Vienna, Albertina, 2, 7, 10, 44, 52, 114, 118,
134, 138, 144, '45. >50-
Vienna, Imperial Library, 13?.

,, Picture GaUery, 60, 62, 66, 70, 84.

118, 136.
Vinci, Leonardo da, 62, 138.
Vincidor, 128.

Virgin, Life of the (woodcuts), 45, 52 — 59,

74—75. 78.

„ with the Apple, 139.

,, ,, ,, Carnation, 104, 108.

,, „ „ Monkey, 42.

„ „ Pear, 84.
Vischer, Peter, 143.
Vitruvius, 1 30.
W, the Master, 40, 42.
Weier-Haus, landscape, 42.
Weimar Museum, 26.
Wittenberg, 16, 45.
Wolgemut, Michel, 3, 40, 104.
Zeeland, I20, 123, 132, 139.
Zurich, 143.

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